the attempting it and this in case they in the mean time escape Conquest from this great and powerfull King of France who at this time gives Law to Christendom I have nothing now left to keep me from the Modern Monarchies but the most famous Commonwealth of Venice of which it would be presumption for me to say any thing whilst you are present Noble Ven. You may very safely go one if you please for I believe Strangers understand the Speculative part of our Government better than we do and the Doctrine of the Ballat which is our chiefe excellency For I have read many Descriptions of our Frame which have taught me something in it which I knew not before particularly Donato Gianotti the Florentine to whom I refer those who are curious to know more of our Orders for we that manage the Mechanical part of the Government are like Horses who know their Track well enough without considering East or West or what business they go about Besides it would be very tedious and very needless to make any Relation of our Model with the several Counsels that make it up and would be that which you have not done in Treating of any other Government what we have said is enough to shew what beginning we had and that serves your turn for we who are called Nobility and who manage the State are the Descendents of the first Inhabitants and had therefore been a Democracy if a numerous Flock of Strangers who are contented to come and live amongst us as Subjects had not swelled our City and made the Governing party seem but a handfull so that we have the same foundations that all other Aristocracies have who govern but one City and have no Territory but what they Govern Provincially and our People not knowing where to have better Justice are very well contented to live amongst us without any share in the Managing of Affairs yet we have power to Adopt whom we please into our Nobility and I believe that in the time of the Roman greatness there were five for one of the Inhabitants who were written in no Tribe but look'd upon as Strangers and yet that did not vitiate their Democracy no more than our Citizens and Common People can hurt our Optimacy all the difficulty in our Administration hath been to regulate our own Nobility and to bridle their faction and ambition which can alone brced a Disease in the Vital part of our Government and this we do by most severe Laws and a very rigorous execution of them Doct. Sir I was thinking to Interpose concerning the Propriety of Lands in the Territory of Padua which I hear is wholly in the possession of the Nobility of Venice Noble Ven. Our Members have very good Estates there yet nothing but what they have paid very well for no part of that Country or of any other Province having been shar'd amongst us as in other Conquests 'T is true that the Paduans having ever been the most revengeful People of Italy could not be deterr'd from those execrable and treacherous Murders which were every day commited but by a severe Execution of the Laws as well against their Lives as Estates And as many of their Estates as were Confiscated were during our necessities in the last War with the Turks exposed to sale and sold to them that offered most without any consideration of the persons purchasing But it is very true that most of them came into the hands of our Nobility they offering more than any other by reason that their sober and frugal living and their being forbidden all manner of Traffick makes them have no way of employing the Money which proceeds from their Parsimony and so they can afford to give more than others who may employ their Advance to better profit elsewhere But I perceive Doctor by this Question that you have studied at Padua Doct. No really Sir the small learning I have was acquired in our own University of Oxford nor was I ever out of this Island Noble Ven. I would you had Sir for it would have been a great honour to our Country to have contributed any thing towards so vast a knowledge as you are Possessor of But I wish that it were your Countrey or at least the place of your Habitation that so we might partake not only of your excellent Discourse sometimes but be the better for your skill which would make us Immortal Doct. I am glad to see you so well that you can make your self so merry but I assure you I am very well here England is a good wholsome Climate for a Physician But pray let our Friend go on to his Modern Monarchies Eng. Gent. That is all I have now to do Those Monarchies are two Absolute and Mixt for the first kind all that we have knowledge of except the Empire of the Turks differ so little from the ancient Monarchies of the Assyrians and Persians that having given a short Description of them before it will be needless to say any more of the Persian the Mogull the King of Pegu China Prestor-John or any other the great Men under those Princes as the Satrapes of old being made so only by their being employed and put into great places and Governments by the Soveraign But the Monarchy of the Grand Seignior is somthing different they both agree in this that the Prince is in both absolute Proprietor of all the Lands excepting in the Kingdom of Egypt of which I shall say somthing anon but the diversity lies in the Adminstration of the Property the other Emperours as well Ancient as Modern using to manage the Revenue of the several Towns and Parishes as our Kings or the Kings of France do that is keep it in their hands and Administer it by Officers And so you may read that Xerxes King of Persia allowed the Revenue of so many Villages to Themistocles which Assignations are practised at this day both to publick and to private uses by the present Monarchs But the Turks when they invaded the broken Empire of the Arabians did not at first make any great alteration in their Policy till the House of Ottoman the present Royal Family did make great Conquests in Asia and afterwards in Greece whence they might possibly take their present way of dividing their conquered Territories for they took the same course which the Goths and other Modern People had used with their Conquered Lands in Europe upon which they planted Military Colonies by dividing them amongst the Souldiers for their pay or maintenance These Shares were called by them Timarr's which signifies Benefices but differ'd in this only from the European Knights-Fees that these last Originally were Hereditary and so Property was maintained whereas amongst the Ottomans they were meerly at will and they enjoyed their shares whilst they remained the Sultan's Souldiers and no longer being turn'd out both of his Service and of their Timarr's when he pleases This doubtless had been the best and firmest
if any person shall be so wicked as to do any Injustice to the Life Liberty or Estate of any Englishman by any private command of the Prince the person agrieved or his next of kin if he be assassinated shall have the same remedy against the Offender as he ought to have had by the good Laws of this Land if there had been no such Command given which would be absolutely void and null and understood not to proceed from that Royal and lawful Power which is vested in his Majesty for the Execution of Justice and the protection of his People Doct. Now I see you have done with all the Government of England pray before you proceed to the decay of it let me ask you what you think of the Chancery whether you do not believe it a Solecism in the Politicks to have such a Court amongst a free People what good will Magna Charta the Petition of Right or St. Edwards Laws do us to defend our Property if it must be entirely subjected to the arbitrary disposal of one man whenever any impertinent or petulant person shall put in a Bill against you How inconsistent is this Tribunal with all that hath been said in defence of our rights or can be said Suppose the Prince should in time to come so little respect his own honour and the Interest of his People as to place a covetous or revengeful person in that great Judicatory what remedy have we against the Corruption of Registers who make what Orders they please Or against the whole Hierarchy of Knavish Clerks whilst not only the punishing and reforming misdemeanours depend upon him who may without controul be the most guilty himself but that all the Laws of England stand there arraigned before him and may be condemned when he pleases Is there or ever was there any such Tribunal in the World before in any Countrey Eng. Gent. Doctor I find you have had a Suit in Chancery but I do not intend to contradict or blame your Orthodox Zeal in this point This Court is one of those Buildings that cannot be repaired but must be demolished I could inform you how excellently matters of Equity are Administred in other Countries And this worthy Gentleman could tell you of the Venerable Quaranzia's in his City where the Law as well as the Fact is at the Bar and subject to the Judges and yet no complaint made or grievance suffered but this is not a place for it this is but the superstructure we must settle the foundation first every thing else is as much out of Order as this Trade is gone Suits are endless and nothing amongst us harmonious but all will come right when our Government is mended and never before though our Judges were all Angels this is the primum quaerite when you have this all other things shall be added unto you when that is done neither the Chancery which is grown up to this since our Ancestors time nor the Spiritual Courts nor the Cheats in trade nor any other abuses no not the Gyant Popery it self shall ever be able to stand before a Parliament no more than one of us can live like a Salamander in the fire Noble Ven. Therefore Sir pray let us come now to the decay of your Government that we may come the sooner to the happy restauration Eng. Gent. This harmonious Government of England being founded as has been said upon Property it was impossible it should be shaken so long as Property remain'd where it was placed for if when the ancient Owners the Britains fled into the Mountains and left their Lands to the Invaders who divided them as is above related they had made an Agrarian Law to fix it then our Government and by consequence our Happiness had been for ought we know Immortal for our Constitution as it was really a mixture of the three which are Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy as has been said so the weight and predominancy remain'd in the Optimacy who possessed nine parts in ten of the Lands And the Prince but about a tenth part In this I count all the Peoples share to the Peers and therefore do not trouble my self to enquire what proportion was allotted to them for that although they had an Hereditary right in their Lands yet it was so clog'd with Tenures and Services that they depended as to publick matters wholly on their Lords who by them could serve the king in his Wars and in time of Peace by leading the people to what they pleased Could keep the Royal Power within its due bounds and also hinder and prevent the people from Invading the Rights of the Crown so that they were the Bulwarks of the Government which in effect was much more an Aristocracy than either a Monarchy or Democracy and in all Governments where Property is mixt the Administration is so too And that part which hath the greater share in the Lands will have it too in the Jurisdiction And so in Commonwealths the Senate or the People have more or less Power as they have more or fewer possessions as was most visible in Rome where in the beginning the Patricii could hardly bring the People to any thing but afterwards when the Asiatick Conquests had inricht the Nobility to that degree that they were able to purchase a great part of the Lands in Italy the People were all their Clients and easily brought even to cut the throats of their Redeemers the Gracchi who had carried a Law for restoring them their Lands But enough of this before I will not trouble my self nor you to search into the particular causes of this change which has been made in the possessions here in England but it is visible that the fortieth part of the Lands which were at the beginning in the hands of the Peers and Church is not there now besides that not only all Villanage is long since abolished but the other Tenures are so altered and qualified that they signifie nothing towards making the Yeomanry depend upon the Lords The consequence is That the natural part of our Government which is Power is by means of Property in the hands of the People whilest the artificial part or the Parchment in which the Form of Government is written remains the same Now Art is a very good servant and help to Nature but very weak and inconsiderable when she opposes her and fights with her it would be a very Impar congressus between Parchment and Power This alone is the cause of all the disorder you heard of and now see in England and of which every man gives a reason according to his own fancy whilest few hit the right cause some impute all to the decay of Trade others to the growth of Popery which are both great Calamities but they are Effects and not Causes And if in private Families there were the same causes there would be the same effects Suppose now you had five or six Thousand pounds a year as it is
there are and have been so many absolute Monarchies in the World in which it seems that nothing is provided for but the Greatness and Power of the Prince Eng. Gent. I have presumed to give you already my Reason why I take for granted that such a Power could never be given by the Consent of any People for a perpetuity for though the People of Israel did against the will of Samuel and indeed of God himself demand and afterwards chuse themselves a King yet he was never such a King as we speak of for that all the Orders of their Commonwealth the Sanhedrim the Congregation of the People the Princes of the Tribes c. did still remain in being as hath been excellently proved by a learned Gentleman of our Nation to whom I refer you it may then be enquired into how these Monarchies at first did arise History being in this point silent as to the Ancient Principalities we will Conjecture that some of them might very well proceed from the Corruption of better Governments which must necessarily cause a Depravation in manners as nothing is more certain than that Politick defects breed Moral ones as our Nation is a pregnant Example this Debauchery of manners might blind the understandings of a great many destroy the Fortunes of others and make them indigent infuse into very many a neglect and carelesness of the publick good which in all setled States is very much regarded so that it might easily come into the Ambition of some bold aspiring Person to affect Empire and as easily into his Power by fair pretences with some and promises of advantages with others to procure Followers and gain a numerous Party either to Usurp Tyranny over his own Countrey or to lead men forth to Conquer and Subdue another Thus it is supposed that Nimrod got his Kingdom who in Scripture is called a Great Hunter before God which Expositers interpret A great Tyrant The Modern Despotical Powers have been acquired by one of these two ways either by pretending by the first Founder thereof that he had a Divine Mission and so gaining not only Followers but even easie Access in some places without Force to Empire and aftewards dilateing their Power by great Conquests Thus Mahomet and Cingis Can began and established the Sarazen and Tartarian Kingdoms or by a long Series of Wisdom in a Prince or chief Magistrate of a mixt Monarchy and his Council who by reason of the Sleepiness and Inadvertency of the People have been able to extinguish the great Nobility or render them Inconsiderable and so by degrees taking away from the People their Protectors render them Slaves So the Monarchies of France and some other Countries have grown to what they are at this day there being left but a Shadow of the three States in any of these Mocarchies and so no bounds remaining to the Regal Power but since Property remains still to the Subjects these Governments may be said to be changed but not founded or established for there is no Maxim more Infallible and Holding in any Science than this is in the Politicks That Empire is founded in Property Force or Fraud may alter a Government but it is Property that must Found and Eternise it Upon this undeniable Aphorisme we are to build most of our subsequent Reasoning in the mean time we may suppose that hereafter the great power of the King of France may diminish much when his enraged and oppressed Subjects come to be commanded by a Prince of less Courage Wisdom and Military Vertue when it will be very hard for any such King to Govern Tyrannically a Country which is not entirely his own Doct. Pray Sir give me leave to ask you by the way what is the Reason that here in our Country where the Peerage is lessened sufficiently the King has not gotten as great an Addition of Power as accrews to the Crown in France Eng. Gent. You will understand that Doctor before I have finisht this discourse but to stay your Stomach till then you may please to know that in France the greatness of the Nobility which has been lately taken from them did not consist in vast Riches and Revenues but in great Priviledges and Jurisdictions which obliged the People to obey them whereas our great Peers in former times had not only the same great Dependences but very Considerable Revenues besides in Demesnes and otherwise This Vassallage over the People which the Peers of France had being abolisht the Power over those Tenants which before was in their Lords fell naturally and of course into the Crown although the Lands and possessions divested of those Dependences did and do still remain to the Owners whereas here in England though the Services are for the most part worn out and insignificant yet for want of Providence and Policy in former Kings who could not foresee the danger a far off Entails have been suffered to be cut off and so two parts in ten of all those vast Estates as well Mannours as Demesnes by the Luxury and Folly of the Owners have been within these two hundred years purchased by the lesser Gentry and the Commons which has been so far from advantaging the Crown that it has made the Country scarce governable by Monarchy But if you please I will go on with my discourse about Government and come to this again hereafter Noble Ven. I beseech you Sir do Eng. Gent. I cannot find by the small reading I have that there were any other Governments in the World Anciently than these three Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy For the first I have no light out of Antiquity to convince me that there were in old times any other Monarchies but such as were absolutely Despotical all Kingdoms then as well in Greece as Macedon Epirus and the like and where it is said the Princes exercised their Power moderately as in Asia being altogether unlimited by any Laws or any Assemblies of Nobility or People Yet I must confess Aristotle when he reckons up the Corruptions of these three Governments calls Tyranny the Corruption of Monarchy which if he means a Change of Government as it is in the Corruptions of the other two then it must follow that the Philosopher knew of some other Monarchy at the first which afterwards degenerated into Tyranny that is into Arbitrary Power for so the Word Tyranny is most commonly taken though in modern Languages it signifies the ill Exercise of Power for certainly Arbitrary Government cannot be called Tyranny where the whole Property is in the Prince as we reasonably suppose it to have been in those Monarchies no more than it is Tyranny for you to govern your own House and Estate as you please But it is possible Aristotle might not in this speak so according to Terms of Art but might mean that the ill Government of a Kingdom or Family is Tyranny However we have one Example that puzzles Politicians and that is Egypt where Pharaoh is called King and
they are to Cultivate and improve This is well managed by the Bashaws and their Officers and comes to an incredible sum the goods being sold the Money is conveyed in specie to the Port and is the greatest part of that Prince's Revenue And it is believed that if all the Lands had been entirely confiscated and that the Grand Seignior had managed them by his Officers he would not have made a third part so much of the whole as he receives now annually for one half not only because those People are extreamly industrious where their own profit is concerned but for that it is clear if they had been totally divested of their Estates they would have left their Country and made that which is now the most populous Kingdom of the World a Desart as is all the rest of the Turkish Dominions except some Cities And if the People had removed as they did elsewhere there would not only have wanted hands to have Cultivated and Improved the Lands but mouths to consume the product of it so that the Princes Revenue by the cheapness of Victual and the want of Labourers would have almost fallen to nothing Noble Ven. Pray God this be not the reason that this King of France leaves Property to his Subjects for certainly he hath taken example by this Province of Egypt his Subjects having a Tax which for the continuance of it I must call a Rent or Tribute Impos'd upon them to the value of one full half of their Estates which must ever increase as the Lands improve Eng. Gent. I believe Sir there is another reason For the Property there being in the Nobility and Gentry which are the hands by which he manages his Force both at home and abroad it would not have been easie or safe for him to take away their Estates But I come to the limited Monarchies They were first Introduced as was said before by the Goths and other Northern People Whence those great swarms came as it was unknown to Procopius himself who liv'd in the time of their Invasion and who was a diligent searcher into all the circumstances of their concernments so it is very needless for us to make any enquiry into it thus much being clear That they came Man Woman and Child and conquer'd and possest all these parts of the World which were then subject to the Roman Empire and since Christianity came in have been so to the Latin Church till honest John Calvin taught some of us the way how to deliver our selves from the Tyrannical Yoak which neither we nor our Forefathers were able to bear Whence those People had the Government they Establisht in these parts after their Conquest that is whether they brought it from their own Country or made it themselves must needs be uncertain since their Original is wholly so but it seems very probable that they had some excellent persons among them though the ignorance and want of learning in that Age hath not suffered any thing to remain that may give us any great light for it is plain that the Government they setled was both according to the exact Rules of the Politicks and very natural and suitable to that Division they made of their several Territories Whenever then these Invaders had quieted any Province and that the People were driven out or subdued they divided the Lands and to the Prince they gave usually a tenth part or thereabouts to the great Men or Comites Regis as it was translated into Latine every one as near as they could an equal share These were to enjoy an Hereditary right in their Estates as the King did in his part and in the Crown but neither he nor his Peers or Companions were to have the absolute disposal of the Lands so allotted them but were to keep a certain proportion to themselves for their use and the rest was ordered to be divided amongst the Free-men who came with them to Conquer What they kept to themselves was called Demesnes in English and French and in Italian Beni Allodiali The other part which they granted to the Free-men was called a Feud and all these Estates were held of these Lords Hereditarily only the Tenants were to pay a small Rent annually and at every Death or Change an acknowledgment in Money and in some Tenures the best Beast besides But the chief condition of the Feud or Grant was that the Tenant should perform certain Services to the Lord of which one in all Tenures of Free-men was to follow him Armed to the Wars for the Service of the Prince and Defence of the Land And upon their admittance to their Feuds they take an Oath to be true Vassals and Tenants to their Lords and to pay their Rents and perform their Services and upon failure to forfeit their Estates and these Tenants were divided according to their Habitations into several Mannors in every one of which there was a Court kept twice every year where they all were to appear and to be admitted to their several Estates and to take the Oath above mentioned All these Peers did likewise hold all their Demesnes as also all their Mannors of the Prince to whom they swore Allegiance and Fealty There were besides these Freemen or Francklins other Tenants to every Lord who were called Villains who were to perform all servile Offices and their Estates were all at the Lords disposal when he pleased these consisted mostly of such of the former Inhabitants of these Countries as were not either destroyed or driven out and possibly of others who were Servants amongst them before they came from their own Countries Perhaps thus much might have been unnecessary to be said considering that these Lords Tenants and Courts are yet extant in all the Kingdoms in Europe but that to a Gentleman of Venice where there are none of these things and where the Goths never were something may be said in excuse for me Noble Ven. 'T is true Sir we fled from the Goths betimes but yet in those Countries which we recovered since in Terra firma we found the Footsteps of these Lords and Tenures and their Titles of Counts though being now Provinces to us they have no influence upon the Government as I suppose you are about to prove they have in these parts Eng. Gent. You are right Sir for the Governments of France Spain England and all other Countries where these People setled were fram'd accordingly It is not my business to describe particularly the distinct Forms of the several Governments in Europe which do derive from these People for they may differ in some of their Orders and Laws though the Foundation be in them all the same this would be unnecessary they being all extant and so well known and besides little to my purpose excepting to shew where they have declined from their first Institution and admitted of some change France and Poland have not nor as I can learn ever had any Free-men below the Nobility that is
probable you have and keep forty Servants and at length by your neglect and the industry and thrift of your Domesticks you sell one Thousand to your Steward another to your Clerk of the Kitchen another to your Bayliff till all were gone can you believe that these Servants when they had so good Estates of their own and you nothing left to give them would continue to live with you and to do their service as before It is just so with a whole Kingdom In our Ancestors times most of the Members of our House of Commons thought it an honour to retain to some great Lord and to wear his blew Coat And when they had made up their Lord's Train and waited upon him from his own House to the Lords House and made a Lane for him to enter and departed to sit themselves in the Lower House of Parliament as it was then and very justly called can you think that any thing could pass in such a Parliament that was not ordered by the Lords Besides these Lords were the King 's great Council in the Intervals of Parliaments and were called to advise of Peace and War and the latter was seldom made without the consent of the major part if it were not they would not send their Tenants which was all the Militia of England besides the King's tenth part Can it be believed that in those days the Commons should dislike any thing the Lords did in the Intervals or that they would have disputed their Right to receive Appeals from Courts of Equity if they had pretended to it in those days or to mend Money-bills And what is the reason but because the Lords themselves at that time represented all their Tenants that is all the People in some sort and although the House of Commons did Assemble to present their Grievances yet all great Affairs of high Importance concerning the Government was Transacted by the Lords and the War which was made to preserve it was called the Barons Wars not the War of both Houses for although in antienter times the word Baron were taken in a larger sense and comprehended the Francklins or Freemen yet who reads any History of that War shall not find that any mention is made of the concurrence of any assembly of such men but that Simon Monford Earl of Leicester and others of the great ones did by their Power and Interest manage that contest Now if this Property which is gone out of the Peerage into the Commons had passed into the King's hands as it did in Egypt in the time of Joseph as was before said the Prince had had a very easie and peaceable reign over his own Vassals and might either have refused justly to have Assembled the Parliament any more or if he had pleased to do it might have for ever managed it as he thought fit But our Princes have wanted a Joseph that is a wise Councellor and instead of saving their Revenue which was very great and their expences small and buying in those Purchases which the vast expences and luxury of the Lords made ready for them they have alienated their own Inheritance so that now the crown-Crown-Lands that is the publick Patrimony is come to make up the interest of the Commons whilest the King must have a precarious Revenue out of the Peoples Purses and be beholding to the Parliament for his Bread in time of Peace whereas the Kings their Predecessors never asked Aid of his Subjects but in time of War and Invasion and this alone though there were no other decay in the Government is enough to make the King depend upon his People which is no very good condition for a Monarchy Noble Ven. But how comes it to pass that other Neighbouring Countries are in so settled a State in respect of England does their Property remain the same it was or is it come into the hands of the Prince You know you were pleased to admit that we should ask you en passant something of other Countries Eng. Gent. Sir I thank you for it and shall endeavour to satisfie you I shall say nothing of the small Princes of Germany who keep in a great measure their ancient bounds both of Government and Property and if their Princes now and then exceed their part yet it is in time of Troubles and War and things return into their right Chanel of Assembling the several States which are yet in being every where But Germany lying so exposed to the Invasion of the Turks on the one side and of the French on the other and having ever had enough to do to defend their several Liberties against the encroachments of the House of Austria in which the Imperial dignity is become in some fort Hereditary if there had been something of extraordinary power exercised of late years I can say Inter arma silent leges but besides their own particular States they have the Diet of the Empire which never fails to mediate and compose things if there be any great oppresson used by Princes to their subjects or from one Prince or State to another I shall therefore confine my self to the three great Kingdoms France Spain and Poland for as to Denmark and Sweden the first hath lately chang'd its Government and not only made the Monarchy Hereditary which was before Elective but has pull'd down the Nobility and given their Power to the Prince which how it will succeed time will shew Sweden remains in point of Constitution and Property exactly as it did anciently and is a well-Governed Kingdom The first of the other three is France of which I have spoken before and shall onely add That though it be very true that there is Property in France and yet the Government is Despotical at this present yet it is one of those violent States which the Grecians called Tyrannies For if a Lawfull Prince that is one who being so by Law and sworn to rule according to it breaks his Oaths and his Bonds and reigns Arbitrarily he becomes a Tyrant and an Usurper as to so much as he assumes more than the Constitution hath given him and such a Government being as I said violent and not natural but contrary to the Interest of the people first cannot be lasting when the adventitious props which support it fail and whilst it does endure must be very uneasie both to Prince and People the first being necessitated to use continual oppression and the latter to suffer it Doct. You are pleased to talk of the oppression of the People under the King of France and for that reason call it a violent Government when if I remember you did once to day extol the Monarchy of the Turks for well-founded and natural Are not the people in that Empire as much oppressed as in France Eng. Gent. By no means unless you will call it oppression for the grand Seignior to feed all his People out of the Product of his own Lands and though they serve him for it yet
that does not alter the Case for if you set poor men to work and pay them for it are you a Tyrant or rather are not you a good Common-wealths-man by helping those to live who have no other way of doing it but by their labour But the King of France knowing that his People have and ought to have Property and that he has no right to their Possessions yet takes what he pleases from them without their consent and contrary to Law So that when he sets them on work he pays them what he pleases and that he levies out of their own Estates I do not affirm that there is no Government in the World but where Rule is founded in Property but I say there is no natural fixed Government but where it is so and when it is otherwise the People are perpetually complaining and the King in perpetual anxiety always in fear of his Subjects and seeking new ways to secure himself God having been so merciful to mankind that he has made nothing safe for Princes but what is Just and Honest Noble Ven. But you were saying just now that this present Constitution in France will fall when the props fail we in Italy who live in perpetual fear of the greatness of that Kingdom would be glad to hear something of the decaying of those props What are they I beseech you Eng. Gent. The first is the greatness of the present King whose heriock Actions and Wisdom has extinguished envy in all his Neighbour-Princes and kindled fear and brought him to be above all possibility of control at home not only because his Subjects fear his Courage but because they have his Virtue in admiration and amidst all their miseries cannot chuse but have something of rejoycing to see how high he hath mounted the Empire and Honour of their Nation The next prop is the change of their ancient Constitution in the time of Charles the Seventh by Consent for about that time the Country being so wasted by the Invasion and Excursions of the English The States then assembled Petitioned the King that he would give them leave to go home and dispose of Affairs himself and Order the Government for the future as he thought fit Upon this his Successor Lewis the Eleventh being a crafty Prince took an occasion to call the States no more but to supply them with an Assemble des notables which were certain men of his own nomination like Barbones Parliament here but that they were of better quality These in succeeding reigns being the best men of the Kingdom grew Troublesome and Intractable so that for some years the Edicts have been verified that is in our Language Bills have been passed in the Grand Chamber of the Parliament at Paris commonly called the Chambre d'audience who lately and since the Imprisonment of President Brouselles and others during this King's Minority have never refused or scrupled any Edicts whatsoever Now whenever this great King dies and the States of the Kingdom are restored these two great props of Arbitrary Power are taken away Besides these two the Constitution of the Government of France it self is somwhat better fitted than ours to permit extraordinary Power in the Prince for the whole People there possessing Lands are Gentlemen that is infinitely the greater part which was the reason why in their Asembly of Estates the Deputies of the Provinces which we call here Knights of the Shire were chosen by and out of the Gentry and sate with the Peers in the same Chamber as representing the Gentry onely called petite noblesse Whereas our Knights here whatever their blood is are chosen by Commoners and are Commoners our Laws and Government taking no notice of any Nobility but the persons of the Peers whose Sons are likewise Commoners even their eldest whilest their Father lives Now Gentry are ever more tractable by a Prince than a wealthy and numerous Commonalty out of which our Gentry at least those we call so are raised from time to time For whenever either a Merchant Lawyer Tradesman Grasier Farmer or any other gets such an Estate as that he or his Son can live upon his Lands without exercising of any other Calling he becomes a Gentleman I do not say but that we have men very Nobly descended amongst these but they have no preheminence or distinction by the Laws or Government Besides this the Gentry in France are very needy and very numerous the reason of which is That the Elder Brother in most parts of that Kingdom hath no more share in the division of the Paternal Estate than the Cadets or Younger Brothers excepting the Principal House with the Orchards and Gardens about it which they call Vol de Chappon as who should say As far as a Capon can fly at once This House gives him the Title his Father had who was called Seignior or Baron or Count of that place which if he sells he parts with his Baronship and for ought I know becomes in time roturier or ignoble This practice divides the Lands into so many small parcels that the Possessors of them being Noble and having little to maintain their Nobility are fain to seek their Fortune which they can find no where so well as at the Court and so become the King's Servants and Souldiers for they are generally Couragious Bold and of a good Meen None of these can ever advance themselves but by their desert which makes them hazard themselves very desperately by which means great numbers of them are kill'd and the rest come in time to be great Officers and live splendidly upon the King's Purse who is likewise very liberal to them and according to their respective merits gives them often in the beginning of a Campagne a considerable sum to furnish out their Equipage These are a great Prop to the Regal Power it being their Interest to support it lest their gain should cease and they be reduced to be poor Provinciaux that is Country-Gentlemen again whereas if they had such Estates as our Country-Gentry have they would desire to be at home at their ease whilest these having ten times as much from the King as their own Estate can yield them which supply must fail if the King's Revenue were reduced are perpetually engaged to make good all exorbitances Doct. This is a kind of Governing by Property too and it puts me in mind of a Gentleman of good Estate in our Country who took a Tenants Son of his to be his Servant whose Father not long after dying left him a Living of about ten pound a year the young Man's Friends came to him and asked him why he would serve now he had an Estate of his own able to maintain him his Answer was That his own Lands would yield him but a third part of what his Service was worth to him in all besides that he lived a pleasant Life wore good Clothes kept good Company and had the conversation of very pretty Maids that were his Fellow-servants
this Point I shall have occasion to insist and expatiate upon many things which both my self and others have Publish'd in former times For which I will only make this excuse that the Repetition of such matters is the more pardonable because they will be at least new to you who are a stranger to our Affairs and Writings And the rather because those discourses shall be apply'd to our present condition and suited to our present occasions But I will say no more but obey you and proceed I will not take upon me to say or so much as Conjecture how and when Government began in the World or what Government is most Ancient History must needs be silent in that point for that Government is more Ancient than History And there was never any Writer but was bred under some Government which is necessarily supposed to be the Parent of all Arts and Sciences and to have produced them And therefore it would be as hard for a man to Write an account of the beginning of the Laws and Polity of any Countrey except there were memory of it which cannot be before the first Historiographer as it would be to any person without Records to tell the particular History of his own Birth Doct. Sir I cannot comprehend you may not Historians Write a History of Matters done before they were born If it were so no man could Write but of his own times Eng. Gent. My meaning is Where there are not Stories or Records extant for as for Oral Tradition it lasts but for one Age and then degenerates into Fable I call any thing in Writing whereby the account of the Passages or Occurrences of former times is derived to our knowledge a History although it be not pend Methodically so as to make the Author pass for a Wit And had rather read the Authentick Records of any Country that is a Collection of their Laws and Letters concerning Transactions of State and the like than the most Eloquent and Judicious Narrative that can be made Noble Ven. Methinks Sir your discourse seems to imply that we have no account extant of the beginning of Governments pray what do you think of the Books of Moses which seem to be pend on purpose to inform us how he by Gods Command led that People out of Egypt into another Land and in the way made them a Government Besides does not Plutarch tell us how Theseus gathered together the dispersed Inhabitants of Attica brought them into one City and under one Government of his own making The like did Romulus in Italy and many others in divers Countries Eng. Gent. I never said that we had not sufficient knowledge of the Original of particular Governments but it is evident that these great Legislators had seen and lived under other Administrations and had the help of Learned Law-givers and Philosophers excepting the first who had the Aid of God himself So that it remains undiscovered yet how the first REgulation of man-kind began And therefore I will take for granted that which all the Politicians conclude Which is That Necessity made the first Government For every man by the first Law of Nature which is common to us and brutes had like Beasts in a Pasture right to every thing and there being no Property each Individual if he were the stronger might seize whatever any other had possessed himself of before which made a State of perpetual War To Remedy which and the fear that nothing should be long enjoyed by any particular person neither was any mans Life in safety every man consented to be debar'd of that Universal Right to all things and confine himself to a quiet and secure enjoyment of such a part as should be allotted him Thence came in Ownership or Property to maintain which it was necessary to consent to Laws and a Government to put them in Execution Which of the Governments now extant or that have been formerly was first is not possible now to be known but I think this must be taken for granted that whatsoever the Frame or Constitution was first it was made by the Perswasion and Meditation of some Wise and vertuous Person and consented to by the whole Number And then that it was instituted for the good and Preservation of the Governed and not for the Exaltation and greatness of the Person or Persons appointed to Govern The Reason why I beg this Concession is That it seems very improbable not to say impossible that a vast number of people should ever be brought to consent to put themselves under the Power of others but for the ends abovesaid and so lose their Liberty without advantaging themselves in any thing And it is full as impossible that any person or persons so inconsiderable in number as Magistrates and Rulers are should by force get an Empire to themselves Though I am not ignorant that a whole people have in imminent Dangers either from the Invasion of a powerful Enemy or from Civil Distractions put themselves wholly into the hands of one Illustrious Person for a time and that with good Success under the best Forms of Government But this is nothing to the Original of States Noble Ven. Sir I wonder how you come to pass over the Consideration of Paternal Government which is held to have been the beginning of Monarchies Eng. Gent. Really I did not think it worth the taking notice of for though it be not easie to prove a Negative yet I believe if we could trace all Foundations of Polities that now are or ever came to our knowledge since the World began we shall find none of them to have descended from Paternal Power we know nothing of Adam's leaving the Empire to Cain or Seth It was impossible for Noah to retain any Jurisdiction over his own three Sons who were dispersed into three parts of the World if our Antiquaries Calculate right and as for Abraham whilst he lived as also his Son Isaac they were but ordinary Fathers of Families and no question governed their own Houshold as all others do but when Jacob upon his Death-bed did relate to his Children the Promise Almighty God had made his Grandfather to make him a great Nation and give his Posterity a fruitful Territory he speaks not one word of the Empire of Reuben his first-born but supposes them all equal And so they were taken to be by Moses when he divided the Land to them by Lot and by Gods command made them a Commonwealth So that I believe this fancy to have been first started not by the solid Judgement of any man but to flatter some Prince and to assert for want of better Arguments the jus Divinum of Monarchy Noble Ven. I have been impertinent in interrupting you but yet now I cannot repent of it since your Answer hath given me so much satisfaction but if it be so as you say that Government was at first Instituted for the Interest and Preservation of Mankind how comes it to pass That
yet we see that till Joseph's time he had not the whole Property for the Wisdom of that Patriarch taught his Master a way to make a new use of that Famine by telling him that if they would buy their Lives and sell their Estates as they did afterwards and preserve themselves by the Kings Bread they shall serve Pharaoh which shews that Joseph knew well that Empire was founded in Property But most of the Modern Writers in Polity are of Opinion that Egypt was not a Monarchy till then though the Prince might have the Title of King as the Heraclides had in Sparta and Romulus and the other Kings had in Rome both which States were Instituted Common-Wealths They give good Conjectures for this their Opinion too many to be here mentioned only one is That Originally as they go about to prove all Arts and Sciences had their Rise in Egypt which they think very improbable to have been under a Monarchy But this Position That all Kings in former times were absolute is not so Essential to the intent I have in this Discourse which is to prove That in all States of what kind soever this Aphorisme takes place Imperium fundatur in Dominio So that if there were mixed Monarchies then the King had not all the Property but those who shared with him in the Administration of the Soveraignty had their part whether it were the Senate the People or both or if he had no Companions in the Soveraign Power he had no Sharers likewise in the Dominion or Possession of the Land For that is all we mean by Property in all this Discourse for as for Personal Estate the Subjects may enjoy it in the largest Proportion without being able to invade the Empire The Prince may when he pleases take away their Goods by his Tenants and Vassals without an Army which are his Ordinary Force and answers to our Posse Comitatus But the Subjects with their Money cannot invade his Crown So that all the Description we need make of this Kind or Form of Government is That the whole possession of the Country and the whole power lies in the Hands and Breast of one man he can make Laws break and repeal them when he pleases or dispense with them in the mean time when he thinks fit interpose in all Judicatories in behalf of his Favourites take away any particular mans personal Estate and his Life too without the formality of a Criminal Process or Trial send a Dagger or a Halter to his chief Ministers and command them to make themselves away and in fine do all that his Will or his Interest suggests to him Doct. You have dwelt long here upon an Argumentation That the Ancients had no Monarchies but what were Arbitrary Eng. Gent. Pray give me leave to save your Objections to that point and to assure you first That I will not take upon me to be so positive in that for that I cannot pretend to have read all the Historians and Antiquaries that ever writ nor have I so perfect a memory as to remember or make use of in a Verbal and Transient Reasoning all that I have ever read And then to assure you again that I build nothing upon that Assertion and so your Objection will be needless and only take up time Doct. You mistake me I had no intent to use any Argument or Example against your Opinion in that but am very willing to believe that it may be so What I was going to say was this that you have insisted much upon the point of Monarchy and made a strange description of it whereas many of the Ancients and almost all the Modern Writers magnifie it to be the best of Governments Eng. Gent. I have said nothing to the contrary I have told you de facto what it is which I believe none will deny The Philosopher said it was the best Government but with this restriction ubi Philosophi regnant and they had an Example of it in some few Roman Emperours but in the most turbulent times of the Commonwealth and Factions between the Nobility and the People Rome was much more full of Vertuous and Heroick Citizens than ever it was under Aurelius or Antonius For the Moderns that are of that Judgement they are most of them Divines not Politicians and something may be said in their behalf when by their good Preaching they can infuse into their imaginary Prince who seems already to have an Image of the Power of God the Justice Wisdom and Goodness too of the Deity Noble Ven. We are well satisfied with the Progress you have hitherto made in this matter pray go on to the two other Forms used amongst the Ancients and their Corruptions that so we may come to the Modern Governments and see how England stands and how it came to decay and what must Rebuild it Eng. Gent. You have very good Reason to hasten me to that for indeed all that has been said yet is but as it were a Preliminary discourse to the knowledge of the Government of England and its decay when it comes to the Cure I hope you will both help me for both your self and the Doctor are a thousand times better than I at Remedies But I shall dispatch the other two Governments Aristocracy or Optimacy is a Commonwealth where the better sort that is the Eminent and Rich men have the chief Administration of the Government I say the chief because there are very few ancient Optimacies but the People had some share as in Sparta where they had power to Vote but not Debate for so the Oracle of Apollo brought by Lycurgus from Delphos settles it But the truth is these people were the natural Spartans For Lycurgus divided the Country or Territory of Laconia into 39000 Shares whereof Nine thousand only of these Owners were Inhabitants of Sparta the rest lived in the Country so that although Thucidides call it an Aristocracy and so I follow him yet it was none of those Aristocracies usually described by the Politicians where the Lands of the Territory were in a great deal fewer Hands But call it what you will where ever there was an Aristocracy there the Property or very much the Over-ballance of it was in the hands of the Aristoi or Governours be they more or fewer for if the People have the greatest interest in the Property they will and must have it in the Empire A notable example of it is Rome the best and most glorious Government that ever the Sun saw where the Lands being equally divided amongst the Tribes that is the People it was impossible for the Patricii to keek them quiet till they yielded to their desires not only to have their Tribunes to see that nothing passed into a Law without their consent but also to have it declared that both the Consuls should not only be chosen by the people as they ever were and the Kings too before them but that they might be elected too when the
people pleased out of Plebeian Families So that now I am come to Democracy Which you see is a Government where the chief part of the Soveraign Power and the exercise of it resides in the People and where the Style is Jessu populi authoritate patrum And it doth consist of three fundamental Orders The Senate proposing the People resolving and the Magistrates executing This Government is much more Powerful than an Aristocracy because the latter cannot arm the People for fear they should seize upon the Government and therefore are fain to make use of none but Strangers and Mercinaries for Souldiers which as the Divine Machiavil says has hindred your Commonwealth of Venice from mounting up to Heaven whither those incomparable Orders and that venerable Wisdom used by your Citizens in keeping to them would have carried you if in all your Wars you had not been ill served Doct. Well Sir pray let me ask you one thing concerning Venice How do you make out your Imperium fundatur in dominio there Have the Gentlemen there who are the Party governing the possession of the whole Territory Does not property remain entire to the Gentlemen and other Inhabitants in the several Countries of Padua Brescia Vicenza Verona Bergamo Creman Trevisi and Friuli as also in the Vltramarine Provinces and Islands And yet I believe you will not deny but that the Government of Venice is as well founded and hath been of as long continuance as any that now is or ever was in the World Eng. Gent. Doctor I shall not answer you in this because I am sure it will be better done by this Gentleman who is a worthy Son of that honourable Mother Noble Ven. I thought you had said Sir that we should have done Complimenting but since you do Command me to clear the Objection made by our learned Doctor I shall presume to tell you first how our City began The Goths Huns and Lombards coming with all the Violence and Cruelty immaginable to invade that part of Italy which we now call Terra firma and where our Ancestors did then inhabit forced them in great numbers to seek a shelter amongst a great many little Rocks or Islands which stood very thick in a vast Lake or rather Marsh which is made by the Adriatique Sea we call it Laguna here they began to build and getting Boats made themselves Provisions of all kind from the Land from whence innumerable people began to come to them finding that they could subsist and that the barbarous people had no Boats to attack them nor that they could be invaded either by Horse or Foot without them Our first Government and which lasted for many years was no more than what is practised in many Country Parishes in Italy and possibly here too where the Clerk or any other person calls together the chief of the Inhabitants to consider of Parish-business as chusing of Officers making of Rates and the like So in Venice when there was any publick provision to be made by way of law or otherwise some Officers went about to persons of the greatest Wealth and Credit to intreat them to meet and consult from whence our Senate is called to this day Consiglio de pregadi which in our Barbarous Idiom is as much as Pregati in Tuscan Language Our security increased daily and so by consequence our Number and our Riches for by this time there began to be another inundation of Sarazens upon Asia Minor which forced a great many of the poor people of Greece to fly to us for protection giving us the possession of some Islands and other places upon the Continent This opened us a Trade and gave a beginning to our greatness but chiefly made us consider what Government was fittest to conserve our selves and keep our Wealth for we did not then much dream of Conquests else without doubt we must have made a popular Government we pitcht upon an Aristocracy by ordering that those who had been called to Council for that present year and for four years before should have the Government in their hands and all their Posterity after them for ever which made first the distinction between Gentlemen and Citizens the People who consisted of divers Nations most of them newly come to inhabit there and generally seeking nothing but safety and ease willingly consented to this change and so this State hath continued to this day though the several Orders and Counsels have been brought in since by degrees as our Nobility encreased and for other causes Under this Government we have made some Conquests in Italy and Greece for our City stood like a Wall between the two great Torrents of Goths and Sarazens and as either of their Empires declin'd it was easie for us without being very Warlike to pick up some pieces of each side as for the Government of these Conquests we did not think fit to divide the Land amongst our Nobility for fear of envy and the effects of it much less did we think it adviseable to plant Colonies of our People which would have given the Power into their hands but we thought it the best way for our Government to leave the People their Property tax them what we thought fit keep them under by Governours and Citadels and so in short make them a Province So that now the Doctors Riddle is solved for I suppose this Gentleman did not mean that his Maxime should reach to Provincial Governments Eng. Gent. No Sir so far from that that it is just contrary for as in National or Domestick Government where a Nation is Governed either by its own People or its own Prince there can be no settled Government except they have the Rule who possess the Country So in Provincial Governments if they be wisely ordered no man must have any the least share in the managing Affairs of State but strangers or such as have no share or part in the possessions there for else they will have a very good opportunity of shaking off their Yoak Doct. That is true and we are so wise here I mean our Ancestors were as to have made a Law That no Native in Ireland can be Deputy there But Sir being fully fatisfied in my demand by this Centleman I beseech you to go on to what you have to say before you come to England Eng. Gent. I shall then offer two things to your observation the first is That in all times and places where any great Heroes or Legislators have founded a Government by gathering people together to build a City or to invade any Countrey to possess it before they câ—me to dividing the conquered Lands they did always very maturely deliberate under what Form or Model of Government they meant to live and accordingly made the Partition of the Possessions Moses Theseus and Romulus Founders of Demacracies divided the Land equally Licurgus who meant an Optimacy made a certain number of Shares which he intended to be in the hands of the
People of Laconia Cyrus and other conquering Monarchs before him took all for themselves and Successors which is observed in those Eastern Countries to this day and which has made those Countries continue ever since under the same Government though Conquered and possessed very often by several Nations This brings me to the second thing to be observed which is That wherever this apportionment of Lands came to be changed in any kind the Government either changed with it or was wholly in a state of confusion And for this reason Licurgus the greatest Politician that ever Founded any Government took a sure way to fix Property by Confounding it and bringing all into Common And so the whole number of the Natural Spartans who inhabited the City of Lacedemon eat and drank in their several convives together And as long as they continued so to do they did not only preserve their Government entire and that for a longer time than we can read of any Common-Wealth that ever lasted amongst the Ancients but held as it were the principality of Greece The Athenians for want of some Constitutions to fix Property as Theseus placed it were in danger of utter ruine which they had certainly encounter'd if the good Genius as they then call'd it of that People had not raised them up a second Founder more than six hundred years after the first which was Solon And because the History of this matter will very much conduce to the illustrating of this Aphorisme we have laid down I will presume so much upon your patience as to make a short recital of it leaving you to see it more at large in Plutarch and other Authors The Lands in the Territory of Attica which were in the possession of the Common People for what reason History is silent were for Debt all Mortgaged to the great Men of the City of Athens and the Owners having no possibility of Redeeming their Estates were treating to Compound with their Creditors and deliver up their Lands to them Solon who was one of those State Physicians we spake of was much troubled at this and harangued daily to the Nobility and People against it telling them first that it was impossible for the Grecians to resist the Medes who were then growing up to a powerful Monarchy except Athens the second City of Greece did continue a Democracy That it was as Impossible the People could keep their Empire except they kept their Lands nothing being more contrary to Nature than that those who possess nothing in a Country can pretend to Govern it They were all sensible of his Reasons and of their own Danger but the only Remedy which was that the great Men should forgive the Common People their Debts would not at all be digested so that the whole City now fully understanding their condition were continually in an uproar and the People flock'd about Solon whenever he came abroad desiring him to take upon him the Government and be their Prince and they would make choice of him the next time they assembled He told them no he would never be a Tyrant especially in his own Country meaning that he who had no more share than other of the Nobles could not Govern the rest without being an Usurper or Tyrant But this he did to oblige his Citizens he frankly forgave all the Debts that any of the People owed to him and released their Lands immediately and this amounted to fifteen Attick Talents of Gold a vast sum in those days and betook himself to a voluntary Exile in which he visited Thales and went to the Oracle of Delphos and offer up his Prayers to Apollo for the preservation of his City In return of which as the People then believed the hearts of the great ones were so changed and inlarged that they readily agreed to remit all their Debts to the People upon Condition that Solon would take the pains to make them a New Model of Government and Laws suitable to a Democracy which he as readily accepted and performed by vertue of which that City grew and continued long the greatest the Justest the most Vertuous Learned and Renowed of all that Age drove the Persians afterwards out of Greece defeated them doth by Sea and Land with a quarter of their number of Ships and Men and produced the greatest Wits and Philosophers that ever lived upon Earth The City of Athens Instituted a Solemn Feast in Commemoration of that great Generosity and Self-denial of the Nobility who Sacrificed their own Interest to the preservation of their Country which Feast was called the Solemnity of the Seisactheia which signifies recision or abolition of Debts and was observed with Processions Sacrifices and Games till the time of the Roman's Dominion over them who encouraged it and ever till the change of Religion in Greece and Invasion of the Sarazens The Roman's having omitted in their Institution to provide for the fixing of Property and so the Nobility called Patricii beginning to take to themselves a greater share in the conquer'd Lands than had been usual for in the first times of the Commonwealth under Romulus and ever after it was always practised to divide the Lands equally amongst the Tribes this Innovation stirred up Licinius Stolo then Tribune of the People to propose a Law which although it met with much difficulty yet at last was consented to by which it was provided that no Roman Citizen of what degree soever should possess above five hundred Acres of Land and for the remaining part of the Lands which should be Conquer'd it was Ordered to be equally divided as formerly amongst the Tribes This found admittance after much oposition because it did provide but for the future no Man at that time being owner of more Lands than what was lawful for him to possess and if this law had been strictly observed to the last that glorious Commonwealth might have subsisted to this day for ought we know Doctor Some other Cause would have been the Ruine of it what think you of a Foreign Conquest Eng. Gent. Oh Doctor if they had kept their Poverty they had kept their Government and their Vertue too and then it had not been an easie matter to subdue them Quos vult perdere Jupiter dementat Breach of Rules and Order causes Division and Division when it comes to be Incurable exposes a Nation almost as much as a Tyrannical Government does The Goths and Vandals had they Invaded in those days had met with the same success which befell the Cymbri and the Teutones I must confess a Foreign Invasion is a Formidable thing when a Commonwealth is weak in Territory and Inhabitants and that the Invader is numerous and Warlike And so we see the Romans were in danger of utter ruine when they were first attacqued by the Gauls under Brennus The like hazzard may be fear'd when a Commonwealth is assaulted by another of equal Vertue and a Commander of equal Address and Valour to any of themselves Thus
the Romans run the risk of their Liberty and Empire in the War of Hannibal but their Power and their Vertue grew to that heighth in that contest that when it was ended I believe that if they had preserved the Foundation of their Government entire they had been Invincible And if I were alone of this Opinion I might be ashamed but I am backt by the Judgement of your Incomparable Country-man Machiavil and no Man will condemn either of us of rashness if he first consider what small States that have stood upon right bottoms have done to defend their Liberty against great Monarchs as is to be seen in the example of the little Commonwealth of Athens which destroyed the Fleet of Xerxes consisting of a thousand Vessels in the Streights of Salamis and before the land army of Darius of three hundred thousand in the Plains of Marathon and drove them out of Greece for though the whole Confederates were present at the Battel of Plataea yet the Athenian Army singly under their General Miltiades gain'd that renowned Battel of Marathon Noble Ven. I beseech you Sir how was it possible or practicable that the Romans Conquering so many and so remote Provinces should yet have been able to preserve their Agrarian Law and divide all those Lands equally to their Citizens Or if it had been possible yet it would have ruin'd their City by sending all their Inhabitants away and by taking in Strangers in their room they must necessarily have had people less Vertuous and less Warlike and so both their Government and their Military Discipline must have been Corrupted for it is not to be imagined but that the People would have gone with their Families to the place where their Lands lay So that it appears that the Romans did not provide in the making and framing their first Polity for so great Conquests as they afterwards made Eng. Gent. Yes surely they did from their first beginning they were Founded in War and had neither Land nor Wives but what they fought for but yet what you object were very weighty if there had not been a consideration of that early For assoon as that great and wise People had subdued the Samnites on the East and brought their Arms as far as the Greek Plantations in that part of Italy which is now called the Kingdom of Naples and Westward had reduced all the Tuscans under their Obedience as far as the River Arnus they made that and the River Volturnus which runs by the Walls of Capua the two Boundaries of their Empire which was called Domicilium Imperii These were the ne plus ultra for what they Conquered between these two Rivers was all confiscated and divided amongst the Tribes the Rustick Tribes being twenty seven and the Vrbane Tribes nine which made thirty six in all The City Tribes were like our Companies in London consisting of Tradesmen The Country Tribes were divided like Shires and there was scarce any Landed Man who Inhabited in the City but he was written in that Tribe where his Estate lay so that the Rustick Tribes though they had all equal Voices were of far more Credit and Reputation than the Vrbane Upon the days of the Comtia which were very well known as many as thought fit amongst the Country Tribes came to give their Voices though every Tribe was very numerous of Inhabitants that lived in the City Now the Agrarian did not extend to any Lands conquered beyond this Precinct but they were leâ—t to the Inhabitants they paying a Revenue to the Commonwealth all but those which were thought fit to be set out to maintain a Roman Colony which was a good number of Roman Citizens sent thither and provided of Lands and Habitations which being Armed did serve in the nature of a Citadel and Garison to keep the Province in Obedience and a Roman Praetor Proconsul or other Governour was sent yearly to Head them and brought Forces with him besides Now it was over lawful for any Roman Citizen to purchase what Lands he pleased in any of these Provinces it not being dangerous to a City to have their People rich but to have such a Power in the Governing part of the Empire as should make those who managed the Affairs of the Commonwealth depend upon them which came afterwards to be that which ruined their Liberty and which the Gracchi endeavoured to prevent when it was too late For those Illustrious persons seeing the disorder that was then in the Commonwealth and rightly comprehending the Reason which was the intermission of the Agrarian and by consequence the great Purchases which were made by the Men of Rome who had inriched themselves in Asia and the other Provinces in that part of Italy which was between the two Rivers before mentioned began to harrangue the People in hopes to perswade them to admit of the right Remedy which was to confirm the Agrarian Law with a Retrospect which although they carried yet the difficulties in the Execution proved so great that it never took effect by reason that the Common People whose Interest it was to have their Lands restored yet having long lived as Clients and Dependents of the great ones chose rather to depend still upon their Patrons than to hazard all for an Imaginary deliverance by which supineness in them they were prevail'd with rather to joyne for the most part with the Oppressors of themselves and their Countrey and to cut the throats of their redeemers than to employ their just resentment against the covetous Violators of their Government and Property So perished the two renowned Gracchi one soon after the other not for any crime but for having endeavoured to preserve and restore their Common-wealth for which if they had lived in times suitable to such an Heroick undertaking taking and that the vertue of their Ancestors had been yet in any kind remaining they would have merited and enjoyed a Reputation equal to that of Lycurgus or Solon whereas as it happen'd they were sometime after branded with the name of Sedition by certain Wits who prostituted the noble flame of Poetry which before had wont to be employed in magnifying Heroick Actions to flatter the Lust and Ambition of the Roman Tyrants Noble Ven. Sir I approve what you say in all things and in Confirmation of it shall further alledge the two famous Princes of Sparta Agis and Cleomines which I couple together since Plutarch does so These finding the Corruption of their Commonwealth and the Decay of their ancient Vertue to proceed from the neglect and inobservance of their Founders Rules and a breach of that Equality which was first instituted endeavour to restore the Laws of Lycurgus and divide the Territory anew their Victory in the Peloponnesian War and the Riches and Luxury brought into their City by Lisander having long before broken all the Orders of their Common-wealth and destroyed the Proportions of Land allotted to each of the Natural Spartans But the first of these two
Monarchy in the World if they could have stayed here and not had a Mercinary Army besides which have often like the Praetorians in the time of the Roman Tyrants made the Palace and the Serraglio the Shambles of their Princes whereas if the Timariots aswell Spahis or Horse as Foot had been brought together to Guard the Prince by Courses as they used to do King David as well as they are to fight for the Empire this horrid flaw and inconvenience in their Government had been wholly avoided For though these are not planted upon entire Property as David's were those being in the nature of Trained-Bands yet the remoteness of their Habitations from the Court and the Factions of the great City and their desire to repair home and to find all things quiet at their return would have easily kept them from being infected with that cursed Disease of Rebellion against their Soveraign upon whose favour they depend for the continuance of their livelihood Whereas the Janizaries are for life and are sure to be in the same Employment under the next Successor so sure that no Grand Seignior can or dares go about to Disband them the suspicion of intending such a thing having caused the death of more than one of their Emperours But I shall go to the limited Monarchies Doct. But pray before you do so Inform us something of the Roman Emperours Had they the whole Dominion or Property of the Lands of Italy Eng. Gent. The Roman Emperours I reckon amongst the Tyrants for so amongst the Greeks were called those Citizens who usurpt the Governments of their Crmmonwealths and maintain'd it by force without endeavouring to Found or Establish it by altering the Property of Lands as not imagining that their Children could ever hold it after them in which they were not deceived So that it is plain that the Roman Empire was not a natural but a violent Government The reasons why it lasted longer than ordinarily Tyrannies do are many First because Augustus the first Emperour kept up the Senate and so for his time cajold them with this bait of Imaginary Power which might not have sufficed neither to have kept him from the fate of his Uncle but that there had been so many Revolutions and bloody wars between that all Mankind was glad to repose and take breath for a while under any Government that could protect them And he gain'd the service of these Senators the rather because he suffered none to be so but those who had followed his Fortune in the several Civil Wars and so were engaged to support him for their own preservation Besides he confiscated all those who had at any time been proscribed or sided in any Encounter against him which considering in how few hands the Lands of Italy then were might be an over-ballance of the Property in his hands But this is certain that what ever he had not in his own possession he disposed of at his pleasure taking it away as also the lives of his people without any judicial proceedings when he pleased That the Confiscations were great we may see by his planting above sixty thousand Souldiers upon Lands in Lombardy That is erecting so many Beneficia or Timarr's and if any Man's Lands lay in the way he took them in for Neighbourhood without any delinquency Mantua vae miserae nimium vicina Cremonoe And it is very evident that if these Beneficia had not afterwards been made Hereditary that Empire might have had a stabler Foundation and so a more quiet and orderly progress than it after had for the Court Guards call'd the Praetorians did make such havock of their Princes and change them so often that this though it may seem a Paradox is another reason why this Tyranny was not ruin'd sooner for the People who had really an Interest to endeavour a change of Government were so prevented by seeing the Prince whom they designed to supplant removed to their hand that they were puzled what to do taking in the mean time great recreation to see those wild Beasts hunted down themselves who had so often prey'd upon their Lives and Estates besides that most commonly the frequent removes of their Masters made them scarce have time to do any mischief to their poor oppressed Subjects in particular though they were all Slaves in general This Government of the later Romans is a clear Example of the truth and efficacy of these Politick Principles we have been discoursing of First that any Government be it the most unlimitted and arbitrary Monarchy that is placed upon a right Basis of Property is better both for Prince and People than to leave them a seeming Property still at his devotion and then for want of fixing the Foundation expose their Lives to those dangers and hazzards with which so many Tumults and Insurrections which must necessarily happen will threaten them daily And in the next place that any violent constraining of mankind to a subjection is not to be called a Government nor does salve either the Politick or Moral ends which those eminent Legislators amongst the Ancients proposed to themselves when they set Rules to preserve the quiet and peace as well as the plenty prosperity and greatness of the People but that the Politicks or Art of Governing is a Science to be learned and studied by Counsellors and Statsemen be they never so great or else Mankind will have a very sad condition under them and they themselves a very perplexed and turbulent life and probably a very destructive and precipitous end of it Doct. I am very glad I gave occasion to make this Discourse now I beseech you before you go to the mixt Monarchies not to forget Egypt Eng. Gent. 'T was that I was coming to before you were pleased to interrogate me concerning the Roman Empire The Egyptians are this day for ought I know the only People that enjoy Property and are Governed as a Province by any of the Eastern absolute Princes For whereas Damasco Aleppo and most of the other Cities and Provinces of that Empire whose Territory is divided into Timarr's are Governed by a Bashaw who for his Guards has some small number of Janizaries or Souldiers the Bashaw of Egypt or of Grand Cairo has ever an Army with him and divers Forts are erected which is the way European Princes use in Governing their Provinces and must be so where Property is left entire except they plant Colonies as the Romans did The reason why Selim who broke the Empire of the Mamalukes and conquered Egypt did not plant Timarr's upon it was the Laziness and Cowardliness of the People and the great Fruitfulness of the Soil and Deliciousness of the Country which has mollifi'd and rendred effeminate all the Nations that ever did Inhabit it So that a resolution was taken to impose upon them first the maintaining an Army by a Tax and then to pay a full half of all the Fruits and product of their Lands to the Grand Seignior which
had no Yeomen but all are either Noble or Villains therefore the Lands must have been Originally given as they now remain into the hands of these Nobles But I will come to the Administration of the Government in these Countries and first say wherein they all agree or did at least in their institution which is That the Soveraign power is in the States assembled together by the Prince in which he presides these make Laws Levy Money Redress Grievances punish great Officers and the like These States consist in some places of the Prince and Nobility onely as in Poland and anciently in France before certain Towns for the encouraging of Trade procured Priviledges to send Deputies which Deputies are now called the third Estate and in others consist of the Nobility and Commonalty which latter had and still have the same right to Intervene and Vote as the great ones have both in England Spain and other Kingdomes Doct. But you say nothing of the Clergy I see you are no great friend to them to leave them out of your Politicks Eng. Gent. The truth is Doctor 〈◊〉 could wish there had never been any 〈◊〉 the purity of Christian Religion as alsâ—… the good and orderly Government of thâ—… World had been much better provideâ—… for without them as it was in the Apostâ—…lical time when we heard nothing 〈◊〉 Clergy But my omitting their Reveâ—…end Lordships was no neglect for I meaâ—… to come to them in order for you know that the Northern People did not bring Christianity into these parts but found it here and were in time converted to it so that there could be no Clergy at the first but if I had said nothing at all of this Race yet I had committed no Solecism in the Politicks for the Bishops and great Abbots intervened in the States here upon the same Foundation that the other Peers do viz. for their great possessions and the dependence their Tenants and Vassals have upon them although they being a People of that great sanctity and knowledg scorn â—o intermix so much as Titles with us â—rofane Lay-Ideots and therefore will â—e called Lords Spiritual But you will â—ave a very venerable opinion of them â—f you do but consider how they came â—y these great possessions which made â—hem claim a third part of the Governâ—ent And truely not unjustly by my â—…le for I believe they had no less at â—…e time than a third part of the Lands 〈◊〉 most of these Countries Noble Ven. Pray how did they acquire â—…ese Lands was it not here by the Charitable donation of pious Christians as it was elsewhere Eng. Gent. Yes certainly very pious men some of them might be well meaning people but still such as were cheated by these holy men who told them perpetually both in publick and private that they represented God upon Earth being Ordained by Authority from him who was his Viceroy here and that what was given to them was given to God and he would repay it largely both in this World and the next This wheedle made our barbarous Ancestors newly Instructed in the Christian Faith if this Religion may be called so and sucking in this foolish Doctrine more than the Doctrine of Christ so zealous to these Vipers that they would have pluckt out their eyes to serve them much more bestow as they did the fruitfullest and best situate of their possessions upon them Nay some they perswaded to take upon them their Callings vow Chastity and give all they had to them and become one of them amongst whom I believe they found no more sanctity than they left in the World But this is nothing to another trick they had which was to insinuate into the most notorious and execrable Villains with which that Age abounded Men who being Princes and other great Men for such were the Tools they work'd with had treacherously poisoned or otherwise murdered their nearest Relations Fathers Brothers Wives to reign or enjoy their Estates These they did perswade into a belief that if they had a desire to be sav'd notwithstanding their execrable Villanies they need but part with some of those great possessions which they had acquired by those acts to their Bishopricks or Monasteries and they would pray for their Souls and they were so holy and acceptable to God that he would deny them nothing which they immediately performed so great was the ignorance and blindness of that Age and you shall hardly find in the story of those times any great Monastery Abbey or other Religious House in any of these Countries I speak confidently as to what concerns our own Saxons that had not its Foundation from some such Original Doct. A worthy beginning of a worthy Race Noble Ven. Sir you maintain a strange Position here That it had been better there had been no Clergy Would you have had no Gospel preached no Sacraments no continuance of Christian Religion in the World or do you think that these things could have been without a Succession of the true Priesthood or as you call it of true Ministry by means of Ordination do's not your own Church hold the same Eng. Gent. You will know more of my Church when I have told you what I find the word Church to signifie in Scripture which is to me the only rule of Faith Worship and Manners neither do I seek these aditional helps of Fathers Councels or Ecclesiastical history much less Tradition for since it is said in the word of God it self That Antichrist did begin to work even in those days I can easily believe that he had brought his Work to some perfection before the word Church was by him applied to the Clergy I shall therefore tell you what I conceive that Church Clergy and Ordination signified in the Apostolical times I find then the word Church in the New Testament taken but in two sences the first for the Vniversal Invisible Church called sometimes of the First-born that is the whole number of the true Followers of Christ in the World where-ever resident or into what part soever dispersed The other signification of Church is an Assembly which though it be sometimes used to express any Meetings even unlawful tumultuous ones as well in Scripture as prophane Authors yet it is more frequently understood for a gathering together to the Duties of Prayer Preaching and Breaking of Bread and the whole Number so Congregated is both in the Acts of the Apostles and in their holy Epistles called the Church nor is there the least colour for appropriating that word to the Pastors and Deacons who since the Corruptions of Christian Religion are called Clergy which word in the Old Testament is used sometimes for Gods whole People and sometimes for the Tribe of Levi out of which the Priests were chosen for the word signifies a Lot so that Tribe is called Gods Lot because they had no share alotted them when the Land was divided but were to live upon Tythe and serve in the
he to take away from his People all fear and apprehension that he intended to change the Ancient Government called speedily a Parliament anâ— in it consented to a Declaration of thâ— Kingdoms Right in that point without the clearing of which all our other Laws had been useless and the Government it self too of which the Parliament is at the least as Essential a part as the Prince so that there passed a Law in that Parliament that one should be held every year and oftner if need be which like another Magna Charta was confirmed by a new Act made in the time of Edward the Third that glorious Prince nor were there any Sycophants in those days who durst pretend Loyalty by using Arguments to prove that it was against the Royal Prerogative for the Parliament to entrench upon the Kings Right of calling and Dissolving of Parliaments as if there were a Prerogative in the Crown to chuse whether ever a Parliament should assemble or no I would desire no more if I were a Prince to make me Grand Seignior Soon after this last Act the King by reason of his Wars with France and Scotland and other great Affairs was forced sometimes to end his Parliaments abruptly and leave business undone and this not out of Court-tricks which were then unknown which produced another Act not long after by which it was provided That no Parliament should be dismist till all the Petitions were answered That is in the Language of those times till all the Bills which were then styled Petitions were finished Doct. Pray Sir give me a little account of this last Act you speak of for I have heard in Discourse from many Lawyers that they believe there is no such Eng. Gen. Truly Sir I shall confess to you that I do not find this Law in any of our Printed Statute Books but that which first gave me the knowledg of it was what was said about three years ago in the House of Commons by a worthy and Learned Gentleman who undertook to produce the Record in the Reign of Richard the Second and since I have questioned many Learned Counsellors about it who tell me there is such a one and one of them who is counted a Prerogative-Lawyer said it was so but that Act was made in Factious times Besides I think it will be granted that for some time after and particularly in the Reigns of Henry the 4th Henry the 5th and Henry the 6th it was usual for a Proclamation to be made in Westminster-Hall before the end of every Session that all those that had any matter to present to the Parliament should bring it in before such a day for otherwise the Parliament at that day should determine But if there were nothing at all of this nor any Record extant concerning it yet I must believe that it is so by the Fundamental Law of this Government which must be lame and imperfect without it for it is all one to have no Parliaments at all but when the Prince pleases and to allow a power in him to dismiss them when he will that is when they refuse to do what he will so that if there be no Statute it is certainly because our wise Ancestors thought there needed none but that by the very Essence and Constitution of the Government it is provided for and this we may call if you had rather have it so the Common-Law which is of as much value if not more than any Statute and of which all our good Acts of Parliament and Magna Charta it self is but Declaratory so that your Objection is sufficiently aswered in this That though the King is intrusted with the formal part of summoning and pronouncing the Dissolution of Parliaments which is done by his Writ yet the Laws which oblige him as well as us have determin'd how and when he shall do it which is enough to shew that the Kings share in the Soveraignty that is in the Parliament is cut out to him by the Law and not left at his disposal Now I come to the Kings part in the Intervals of Parliament Noble Ven. Sir before you do so pray tell us what other Prerogatives the King enjoys in the Government for otherwise I who am a Venetian may be apt to think that our Doge who is call'd our Prince may have as much Power as yours Eng. Gent. I am in a fine condition amongst you with my Politicks the Doctor tells me I have made the King Absolute and now you tell me I have made him a Doge of Venice But when your Prince has Power to dispose of the Publick Revenue to name all Officers Ecclesiastical and Civil that are of trust and profit in the Kingdom and to dispose absolutely of the whole Militia by Sea and Land then we will allow him to be like ours who has all these Powers Doct. Well you puzzle me extreamly for when you had asserted the King's Power to the heighth in Calling and Dissolving Parliaments you gave me such satisfaction and shewed me wherein the Law had provided that this vast Prerogative could not hurt the People that I was fully satisfied and had not a word to say Now you come about again and place in the Crown such a Power which in my Judgment is inconsistent with our Liberty Eng. Gent. Sir I suppose you mean chiefly the Power of the Militia which was I must confess doubtful before a late Statute declar'd it to be in the King For our Government hath made no other disposal of the Militia than what was natural viz. That the Peers in their several Counties or Jurisdictions had the Power of calling together their Vassals either armed for the Wars or onely so as to cause the Law to be executed by serving Writs and in case of resistance giving possession which Lords amongst their own Tenants did then perform the two several Offices of Lord-Lieutenant and Sheriff which latter was but the Earls Deputy as by his Title of Vice-Comes do's appear But this latter being of daily necessity and Justice it self that is the Lives Liberties and Estates of all the People in that County depending upon it when the greatness of the Peers decay'd of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter the Electing of Sheriff was referred to the County-Court where it continued till it was placed where it now is by a Statute For the other part of the Militia which is the Arming the People for War it was de facto exercised by Commission from the King to a Lord-Lieutenant as an image of the Natural Lord and other Deputies and it was tacitely consented to though it were never setled by Statute as I said before till His Majesties happy Restauration But to answer you I shall say That whatever Powers are in the Crown whether by Statute or by old Prescription they are and must be understood to be intrusted in the Prince for the preservation of the Government and for the safety and interest of the
which made him very well digest the name of being a Servant Eng. Gent. This is the very Case but yet Service in both these Cases is no Inheritance and when there comes a Peaceable King in France who will let his Neighbours be quiet or one that is covetous these fine Gentlemen will lose their Employments and their King this Prop and the rather because these Gentlemen do not depend as was said before in any kind upon the great Lords whose standing Interest is at Court and so cannot in a change be by them carried over to advance the Court-designs against their own good and that of their Country And thus much is sufficient to be said concerning France As for Spain I believe there is no Country excepting Sweden in Christendom where the Property has remained so intirely the same it was at the beginning and the reason is the great and strict care that is taken to hinder the Lands from passing out of the old owners hands for except it be by Marriages no man can acquire another man's Estate nor can any Grandee or Titulado or any other Hidalgo there alienate or ingage his Paternal or Maternal Estate otherwise than for his Life nor can alter Tenures or extinguish Services or dismember Mannors for to this the Princes consent must be had which he never gives till the matter be debated in the Consejo de Camera which is no Junta or secret Consejo de Guerras but one wherein the great men of the Kingdom intervene and wherein the great matters concerning the preservation of the Government are transacted not relating to Foreign Provinces or Governments but to the kingdom of Castile and Leon of which I only speak now It is true there have been one or two exceptions against this severe Rule since the great calamities of Spain and two great Lordships have been sold the Marquisate del Monastero to an Assent ista Genoese and another to Sebastian Cortiza a Portuguese of the same Profession but both these have bought the intire Lordships without curtailing or altering the condition in which these two great Estates were before and notwithstanding this hath caused so much repining amongst the natural Godos as the Castilians call themselves still for glory that I believe this will never be drawn into an Example hereafter Now the Property remaining the same the Government doth so too and the King 's Domestick Government over his natural Spaniards is very gentle whatever it be in his Conquer'd Provinces and the Kings there have very great advantages of keeping their great men by whom they Govern in good temper by reason of the great Governments they have to bestow upon them both in Europe and the Indies which changing every three years go in an Age through all the Grandees which are not very numerous Besides Castile having been in the time of King Roderigo over-run and Conquered by the Moors who Governed there Despotically some hundreds of years before it could be recovered again by the old Inhabitants who fled to the Mountains When they were at length driven out the Count of Castile found a Tax set upon all Commodities whatsoever by the Moors in their Reign called Alcaval which was an easie matter to get continued when their old Government was restored by the Cortes or States and so it has continued ever since as the Excise has done here which being imposed by them who drove and kept out the King does now since his happy Restauration remain a Revenue of the Crown This Alcaval or Excise is a very great Revenue and so prevented for some time the necessities of the Crown and made the Prince have the less need of asking Relief of his People the ordinary cause of disgust so that the Cortes or Assembly of the States has had little to do of late though they are duly assembled every year but seldom contradict what is desired by the Prince for there are no greater Idolaters of their Monarch in the World than the Castilians are nor who drink deeper of the Cup of Loyalty so that in short the Government in Spain is as ours was in Queen Elizabeths time or in the first year after his now Majesties Return when the Parliament for a time Complimented the Prince who had by that means both his own Power and the Peoples which days I hope to see again upon a better and more lasting Foundation But before I leave Spain I must say a word of the Kingdom of Arragon which has not at all times had so quiet a state of their Monarchy as Castile hath enjoyed for after many Combustions which happened there concerning their Fueros and Privilegios which are their Fundamental Laws the King one day coming to his Seat in Parliament and making his demands as was usual they told him that they had a Request to make to him first and he withdrawing thereupon for he had no right of sitting there to hear their Debates they fell into discourse how to make their Government subsist against the encroachments of the Prince upon them and went very high in their Debates whch could not chuse but come to the king's ear who walked in a gallery in the same Palace to expect the issue and being in great Passion was seen to draw out his Dagger very often and thrust it again into the sheath and heard to say Sangre ha de costar which coming to the knowledg of the Estates they left off the Debate and sent some of their number to him to know what blood it should cost and whether he meant to murder any body He drew out his Dagger again and pointing it to his breast he said Sangre de Reys leaving them in doubt whether he meant that his Subjects would kill him or that he would do it himself However that Parliament ended very peaceably and a famous settlement was there and then made by which a great person was to be chosen every Parliament who should be as it were an Umpire between the King and his people for the execution of the Laws and the preservation of their Government their Fueros and Privilegios which are their Courts of Justice and their Charters This Officer was called El Justicia d' Arragon and his duty was to call together the whole Power of the Kingdom whenever any of the aforesaid Rights were by open force violated or invaded and to admonish the King whenever he heard of any clandestine Councils among them to that effect It was likewise made Treason for any person of what quality soever to refuse to repair upon due summons to any place where this Justicia should erect his Standard or to withdraw himself without leave much more to betray him or to revolt from him Besides in this Cortes or Parliament the old Oath which at the first Foundation of their State was ordered to be taken by the King at his admittance was again revived and which is in these words Nos que valemos tanto camo nos y podemos
five parts of six have been alienated and mostly is come into the same hands with those of the King and Peers have inherited likewise according to the course of nature their Power But being kept from it by the established Government which not being changed by any lawfull Acts of State remains still in being formally whereas virtually it is abolished so that for want of outward Orders and Provisions the people are kept from the Exercise of that Power which is faln to them by the Law of Nature and those who cannot by that Law pretend to the share they had do yet enjoy it by vertue of that Right which is now ceased as having been but the natural Effect of a Cause that is no longer in being and you know sublata causa tollitur I cannot say that the greater part of the people do know this their condition but they find very plainly that they want something which they ought to have and this makes them lay often the blame of their unsetledness upon wrong causes but however are altogether unquiet and restless in the Intervals of Parliament and when the King pleases to assemble one spend all their time in Complaints of the Inexecution of the Law of the multiplication of an Infinity of Grievances of Mis-spending the Publick Monies of the danger our Religion is in by practices to undermine it and the State by endeavours to bring in Arbitrary Power and in questioning great Officers of State as the Causers and Promoters of all these Abuses in so much that every Parliament seems a perfect State of War wherein the Commons are tugging and contending for their Right very justly and very honourably yet without coming to a Point So that the Court sends them packing and governs still worse and worse in the Vacancies being necessitated thereunto by their despair of doing any good in Parliament and therefore are forced to use horrid shifts to subsist without it and to keep it off without ever considering that if these Counsellers understood their Trade they might bring the Prince and People to such an Agreement in Parliament as might repair the broken and shipwrack'd Government of England and in this secure the Peace Quiet and Prosperity of the People the Greatness and Happiness of the King and be themselves not only out of present danger which no other course can exempt them from but be Renowned to all Posterity Noble Ven. I beseech you Sir how comes it to pass that neither the King nor any of his Counsellors could ever come to find out the truth of what you discourse for I am fully convinced it is as you say Eng. Gent. I cannot resolve you that but this is certain they have never endeavoured a Cure though possibly they might know the Disease as searing that though the Effects of a Remedy would be as was said very advantagious both to King and People and to themselves yet possibly such a Reformation might not consist with the Merchandize they make of the Princes Favour nor with such Bribes Gratuities and Fees as they usually take for the dispatch of all Matters before them And therefore our Counsellors have been so far from suggesting any such thing to their Master that they have opposed and quashed all Attempts of that kind as they did the worthy Proposals made by certain Members of that Parliament in the beginning of King James's Reign which is yet called the Undertaking Parliament These Gentlemen considering what we have been discoursing of viz. That our old Government is at an end had framed certain Heads which if they had been proposed by that Parliament to the King and by him consented to would in their Opinion have healed the Breach and that if the King would perform his part that House of Commons would undertake for the Obedience of the People They did believe that if this should have been moved in Parliament before the King was acquainted with it it would prove Abortive and therefore sent three of their number to his Majesty Sir James a Croft Grandfather or Father to the present Bishop of Hereford Thomas Harley who was Ancestor to the Honourable Family of that Name in Herefordshire and Sir Henry Nevill who had been Ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to the French King These were to open the matter at large to the King and to procure his leave that it might be proposed in Parliament which after a very long Audience and Debate that wise Prince consented to with a promise of Secresie in the mean time which they humbly begged of His Majesty However this took Vent and the Earl of Northampton of the House of Howard who ruled the Rost in that time having knowledg of it engaged Sir R. Weston afterwards Lord Treasurer and Earl of Portland to impeach these Undertakers in Parliament before they could move their matters which he did the very same day accompanying his Charge which was endeavouring to alter the established Government of England with so eloquent an Invective that if one of them had not risen and made the House acquainted with the whole Series of the Affair they must have been in danger of being impeached by the Commons but however it broke their designe which was all that Northampton and Weston desired and prevented Posterity from knowing any of the Particulars of this Reformation for nothing being moved nothing could remain upon the Journal So that you see our Predecessors were not ignorant altogether of our condition though the Troubles which have befallen this poor Kingdom since have made it much more apparent for since the Determination of that Parliament there has not been one called either in that King's Reign or his Son 's or since that hath not been dissolved abruptly whilst the main businesses and those of most concern to the publick were depending and undecided And although there hath happened in this Interim a bloody War which in the Close of it changed the whole Order and Foundation of the Polity of England and that it hath pleased God to restore it again by his Majesty's happy Return so that the old Government is alive again yet it is very visible that its deadly Wound is not healed but that we are to this day tugging with the same difficulties managing the same Debates in Parliament and giving the same disgusts to the Court and hopes to the Country which our Ancestors did before the Year 1640. whilst the King hath been forced to apply the same Remedy of Dissolution to his two first Parliaments that his Father used to his four first and King James to his three last contrary to his own visible Interest and that of his people and this for want of having Counsellors about him of Abilities and Integrity enough to discover to him the Disease of his Government and the Remedy which I hope when we meet to Morrow Morning you will come prepared to enquire into for the Doctor says he will advise you to go take the Air this afternoon in your
their consideration what should be done in it it was at length concluded that Themistocles should propose it to Aristides and if he did next morning acquaint the People that he gave his approbation to it it should be proceeded in Themistocles informs him that the whole Fleet of their Confederates in the War against the Medes had betaken themselves to the great Arsenal upon their Coast where they might be easily fired and then the Athenians would remain absolute Masters of the Sea and so give Law to all Greece when Aristides came the next day to deliver his Judgment to the People he told them that the business proposed by Themistocles was indeed very advantageous and profitable to the Athenians But withal the most Wicked and Villanous Attempt that ever was undertaken upon which it was wholly laid aside And the same Judgment do I give Doctor of your Democracy at this time But to return to the place where I was I do belive that this difference may easily be terminated very fairly and that our House need not be pulled down and a new one built but may be very easily repair'd so that it may last many hundred years Noble Ven. I begin to perceive that you aim at this That the King must give the People more Power as Henry the Third and King John did or the Parliament must give the King more as you said they did in France in the time of Lewis the Eleventh or else that it will come in time to a War again Eng. Gent. You may please to know that in all times hitherto the Parliament never demanded any thing of the King wherein the Interest and Government of the Kingdom was concerned excepting Acts of Pardon but they founded their demands upon their Right not only because it might seem unreasonable for them to be earnest with him to give them that which was his own but also because they cannot chuse but know that all Powers which are Fundamentally and Lawfully in the Crown were placed there upon the first Institution of our Government to capacitate the Prince to Govern and Protect his People So that for the Parliament to seek to take from him such Authority were to be felo de se as we call a self-Homicide but as in some Distempers of the Body the Head suffers as well as the Inferiour parts so that it is not possible for it to order direct and provide for the whole Body as its Office requires since the Wisdom and Power which is placed there is given by God to that end In which Case though the Distemper of the Body may begin from the Disease of some other part or from the mass of Blood or putrefaction of other Humours yet since that noble part is so affected by it that Reason and Discourse fails therefore to restore this again Remedies must be apply'd to and possibly Humours or Vapours drawn from the Head it self that so it may be able to Govern and Reign over the Body as it did before or else the whole Man like a Slave must be ruled and guided ab extrinseco that is by some Keeper So it is now with us in our Politick Disease where granting if you please that the Distemper does not proceed from the Head but the Corruption of other parts yet in the Cure Applications must be made to the Head as well as to the Members if we mean poor England shall recover its former perfect health and there fore it will be found perhaps Essential to our being to ask something in the condition we now are to which the King as yet may have a Right and which except he please to part with the Phenomena of Government cannot be salved That is our Laws cannot be executed nor Magna Charta it self made practicable and so both Prince and People that is the Polity of England must die of this Disease or by this Delirium must be Governed ab extrinseco and fall to the Lot of some Foregin Power Noble Ven. But Sir since the business is come to this Dilemma why may not the King ask more Power of the Parliament as well as they of him Eng. Gent. No question but our present Councellours and Courtiers would be nibbling at that bait again if they had another Parliament that would take Pensions for their Votes But in one that is come fresh from the People and understand their Sense and Grievances very well I hardly believe they will attempt it for both Council and Parliament must needs know by this time-a-day that the Cause of all our Distractions coming as has been said an hundred times from the King 's having a greater Power already than the condition of Property at this present can admit without Confusion and Disorder It is not like to mend Matters for them to give him more except they will deliver up to him at the same instant their Possessions and Right to their Lands and become Naturally and Politically his Slaves Noble Ven. Since there must be a voluntary parting with Power I fear your Cure will prove long and ineffectul and we Reconcilers shall I fear prove like our devout Cappuchin at Venice this poor Mans name was Fra. Barnardino da Vdine and was esteemed a very holy Man as well as an excellent Preacher insomuch that he was appointed to Preach the Lent Sermons in one of our principal Churches which he performed at the begining with so much Eloquence and Applause that the Church was daily crouded three hours before the Sermon was to begin the esteem and veneration this poor Fryar was in elevated his Spirit a little too high to be contained within the bounds of reason but before his Delirium was perceived he told his Auditory one day that the true Devotion of that People and the care they had to come to hear his word Preached had been so acceptable to God and to the Virgine that they had vouchsafed to Inspire him with the knowledg of an Expedient which he did not doubt but would make Men happy just even in this Life that the Flesh should no longer lust against the Spirit but that he would not acquaint them with it at that present because something was to be done on their parts to make them capable of this great Blessing which was to pray zealously for a happy Success upon his Endeavours and to Fast and to visit the Churches to that end therefore he desired them to come the Wednesday following to be made acquainted with this blessed Expedient You may Imagine how desirous our People were to hear something more of this Fifth-Monarchy I will shorten my Story and tell you nothing of what crouding there was all night and what quarrelling for places in the Church nor with what difficulty the Saffi who were sent by the Magistrate to keep the Paece and to make way for the Preacher to get into the Pulpit did both But up he got and after a long preamable of desiring more Prayers and Addressing
have the full benefit of those Constitutions which were made by our Ancestors for our safe and orderly living our Government is upon a right Basis therefore we must enquire into the Cause why our Laws are not executed when you have found and taken away that Cause all is well The Cause can be no other than this That the King is told and does believe that most of these great Charters or Rights of the people of which we now chiefly treat are against his Majesties Interest though this be very false as has been said yet we will not dispute it at this time but take it for granted so that the King having the Supreme execution of the Laws in his hand cannot be reasonably supposed to be willing to execute them whenever he can chuse whether he will do it or no it being natural for every man not to do any thing against his own Interest when he can help it now when you have thought well what it should be that gives the King a Liberty to chuse whether any part of the Law shall be currant or no you will find that it is the great Power the King enjoys in the Government when the Parliament hath discovered this they will no doubt demand of his Majesty an abatement of his Royal Prerogative in those matters only which concern our enjoyment of our All that is our Lives Liberties and Estates and leave his Royal Power entire and untoucht in all the other branches of it when this is done we shall be as if some great Heroe had performed the adventure of dissolving the Inchantment we have been under so many years And all our Statutes from the highest to the lowest from Magna Charta to that for burying in Woollen will be current and we shall neither fear the bringing in Popery nor Arbitrary Power in the Intervals of Parliament neither will there be any Dissentions in them all Causes of Factions between the Country and Court-party being entirely abolisht so that the People shall have no reason to distrust their Prince nor he them Doct. You make us a fine Golden Age but after all this will you not be pleased to shew us a small prospect of this Canaan or Country of rest will you not vouchsafe to particularize a little what Powers there are in the King which you would have discontinued would you have such Prerogatives abolished or placed elsewhere Eng. Gent. There can be no Government if they be abolished But I will not be like a Man who refuses to sing amongst his Friends at their entreaty because he has an ill Voice I will rather suffer my self to be laught at by you in delivering my small Judgment in this Matter but still with this protestation that I do believe that an Infinity of Men better qualifi'd than my self for such sublime Matters and much more the House of Commons who represent the Wisdom as well as the Power of this Kingdom may find out a far better way than my poor parts and Capacity can suggest The powers then which now being in the Crown do hinder the execution of our Laws and prevent by consequence our happiness and settlement are four The absolute power of making War and peace Treaties and Alliances with all Nations in the World by which means by Ignorant Councellours or Wicked Ministers many of our former Kings have made Confederations and Wars very contrary and destructive to the Interest of England and by the unfortunate management of them have often put the Kingdom in great hazard of Invasion Besides that as long as there is a distinction made between the Court-party and that of the Country there will ever be a Jealousie in the people that those wicked Councellours who may think they can be safe no other way will make Alliances with powerful Princes in which there may be a secret Article by which those Princes shall stipulate to assist them with Forces upon a short warning to curb the Parliament and possibly to change the Government And this apprehension in the People will be the less unreasonable because Oliver Cromwel the great Pattern of some of our Courtiers is notoriously known to have Inserted an Article in his Treaty with Cardinal Mazzarin during this King of France's Minority That he should be assisted with ten thousand Men from France upon occasion to preserve and defend him in his Usurped Government against His Majesty that now is or the People of England or in fine his own Army whose revolt he often feared The Second great Prerogative the King enjoys is the sole Disposal and Ordering of the Militia by Sea and Land Raising Forces Garisoning and Fortifying places Setting out Ships of War so far as he can do all this without putting Taxations upon the People and this not only in the Intervals of Parliament but even during their Session so that they cannot raise the Train-bands of the Country or City to Guard themselves or secure the Peace of the Kingdom The third point is That it is in His Majesties Power to Nominate and Appoint as he pleases and for what time he thinks fit all the Officers of the Kingdom that are of Trust or profit both Civil Military and Ecclesiastical as they will be called except where there is Jus Patronatus These two last Powers may furnish a Prince who will hearken to ill designing Councellours with the means either of Invading the Government by Force or by his Judges and other Creatures undermining it by Fraud Especially by enjoying the Fourth Advantage which is the Laying out and Imploying as he pleases all the Publick Revenues of the Crown or Kingdom and that without having any regard except he thinks fit to the necessity of the Navy or any other thing that concerns the Safety of the Publick So that all these Four great Powers as things now stand may be adoperated at any time as well to destroy and ruine the good Order and Government of the State as to preserve and support it as they ought to do Nob. Ven. But if you divest the King of these Powers will you have the Parliament sit always to Govern these Matters Eng. Gent. Sir I would not divest the King of them much less would I have the Parliament assume them or perpetuate their Sitting They are a Body more fitted to make Laws and punish the Breakers of them than to execute them I would have them therefore petition His Majesty by way of Bill that he will please to exercise these four great Magnalia of Government with the Consent of four several Councils to be appointed for that end and not otherwise that is with the Consent of the Major part of them if any of them dissent In all which Councils His Majesty or who he pleases to appoint shall preside the Councils to be named in Parliament first all the number and every Year afterwards a third part So each Year a third part shall go out and a Recruit of an equal number come
a Regulation as this come in Debate amongst them the Parliament will reserve to it self the Approbation of the Great Officers as Chancellor Judges General Officers of an Army and the like and that such shall not have a settlement in those Charges till they are accordingly allowed of but may in the mean time exercise them As to particulars I shall always refer you to what the Parliament will judge fit to Order in the Case but if you have any thing to Object or to shew in general that some such Regulation as this cannot be effectual towards the putting our Distracted Country into better Order I shall think my self oblig'd to Answer you if you can have Patience to hear me and are not weary already as you may very well be Noble Ven. I shall certainly never be weary of such Discourse however I shall give you no further trouble in this matter for I am very fully satisfied that such Reformation if it could be compassed would not only Unite all Parties but make you very Flourishing at home and very Great abroad but have you any hopes that such a thing will ever come into Debate what do the Parliament-men say to it Eng. Gent. I never had any Discourse to this purpose either with any Lord or Member of the Commons house otherwise than as possibly some of these Notions might fall in at Ordinary Conversation For I do not intend to Intrench upon the Office of God to teach our Senatours Wisdom I have known some men so full of their own Notions that they went up and down sputtering them in every Mans Face they met some went to Great Men during our late troubles nay to the King himself to offer their Expedients from Revelation Two Men I was acquainted with of which one had an Invention to reconcile differences in Religion the other had a project for a Bank of Lands to lye as a Security for summs of Money lent both these were Persons of Great Parts and Fancy but yet so troublesome at all Times and in all Companies that I have often been forced to repeat an Excellent Proverb of your Country God deliver me from a man that has but one business and I assure you there is no Mans Reputation that I envy less than I do that of such Persons and therefore you may please to believe that I have not imitated them in scattering these Notions nor can I Prophesie whether any such Apprehensions as these will ever come into the Heads of those men who are our true Physitians But yet to answer your Question and give you my Conjecture I believe that we are not Ripe yet for any great Reform not only because we are a very Debauch'd People I do not only mean that we are given to Whoring Drinking Gaming and Idleness but chiefly that we have a Politique Debauch which is a neglect of all things that concern the publick welfare and a setting up our own private Interest against it I say this is not all for then the Polity of no Country could be Redrest For every Commonwealth that is out of order has ever all these Debauches we speak of as Consequences of their loose State But there are two other Considerations which induce me to fear that our Cure is not yet near The first is because most of the Wise and Grave Men of this Kingdom are very silent and will not open their Budget upon any terms and although they dislike the present Condition we are in as much as any Men and see the Precipice it leads us to yet will never open their Mouths to prescribe a Cure but being asked what they would advise give a shrug like your Country-men There was a very considerable Gentleman as most in England both for Birth Parts and Estate who being a Member of the Parliament that was called 1640. continued all the War with them and by his Wisdom and Eloquence which were both very great promoted very much their Affairs When the Factions began between the Presbyters and Independents he joyned Cordially with the latter so far as to give his Affirmative to the Vote of No Addresses that is to an Order made in the House of Commons to send no more Messages to the King nor to receive any from him Afterwards when an Assault was made upon the House by the Army and divers of the Members taken violently away and Secluded he disliking it though he were none of them voluntarily absented himself and continued retired being exceedingly averse to a Democratical Government which was then declared for till Cromwell's Usurpation and being infinitely courted by him absolutely refused to accept of any Employment under him or to give him the least Counsel When Cromwell was dead and a Parliament called by his Son or rather by the Army the chief Officers of which did from the beginning whisper into the Ears of the Leading Members that if they could make an honest Government they should be stood by as the Word then was by the Army This Gentleman at that time neither would be Elected into that Parliament nor give the least Advice to any other Person that was but kept himself still upon the Reserve Insomuch that it was generally believed that although he had ever been opposite to the late King 's coming to the Government again though upon Propositions yet he might hanker after the Restoration of His Majesty that now is But that Apprehension appeared groundless when it came to the pinch for being consulted as an Oracle by the then General Monk whether he should restore the Monarchy again or no would make no Answer nor give him the least Advice and de facto hath ever since kept himself from Publick Business although upon the Banishment of my Lord of Clarendon he was visited by one of the Greatest Persons in England and one in as much Esteem with His Majesty as any whatsoever and desired to accept of some great Employment near the King which he absolutely refusing the same Person not a Stranger to him but well known by him begged of him to give his Advice how His Majesty who desired nothing more than to unite all his People together and repair the Breaches which the Civil War had caused now my Lord Clarendon was gone who by his Counsels kept those Wounds open might perform that Honourable and Gracious Work but still this Gentleman made his Excuses And in short neither then nor at any time before or after excepting when he sate in the Long Parliament of the Year 40. neither during the distracted Times nor since His Majesty's Return when they seemed more reposed would ever be brought either by any private intimate Friend or by any Person in Publick Employment to give the least Judgment of our Affairs or the least Counsel to mend them though he was not shye of declaring his dislike of Matters as they went And yet this Gentleman was not only by repute and esteem a wise Man but was really so as it
appeared by his management of business and drawing Declarations when he was contented to act as also by his exceeding prudent managing of his own Fortune which was very great and his honourable Living and providing for his Family his Daughters having been all Marryed to the best Men in England and his Eldest Son to the most accomplisht Lady in the World I dare assure you there are above an hundred such Men in England though not altogether of that eminency Noble Ven. Methinks these persons are altogether as bad an extreme as the loquacious men you spoke of hefore I remember when I went to School our Master amongst other Common-places in the commendation of silence would tell us of a Latine saying That a Fool whilst he held his peace did not differ from a Wise man but truly I think we may as truly say That a wise man whilst he is silent does not differ from a Fool for how great soever his Wisdom is it can neither get him credit nor otherwise advantage himself his Friend nor his Country But let me not divert you from your other point Eng. Gent. The next Reason I have to make me fear that such an Expedient as we have been talking of will not be proposed suddenly is the great distrust the Parliament has of men which will make most Members shy of venturing at such matters which being very new at the first motion are not perfectly understood at least to such as have not been versed in Authors who have written of the Politicks and therefore the Mover may be suspected of having been set on by the Court-party to puzzle them and so to divert by offering new Expedients some smart mettlesome Debates they may be upon concerning the Succession to the Crown or other high matters For it is the nature of all Popular Counsels even the wisest that ever were witness the people of Rome and Athens which Michiavil so much extols in turbulent times to like discourses that heighten their passions and blow up their Indignation better than them that endeavour to rectifie their Judgments and tend to provide for their safety And the truth is our Parliament is very much to be excused or rather justified in this distrust they have of persons since there hath been of late so many and so successful attempts used by the late great Ministers to debauch the most eminent Members of the Commons-House by Pensions and Offices and therefore it would wonderfully conduce to the good of the Common-wealth and to the composing our disordered State if there were men of so high and unquestionable a Reputation that they were above all suspicion and distrust and so might venture upon bold that is in this case moderate Counsels for the saving of their Country Such men there were in the Parliament of 1640. at least twenty or thirty who having stood their ground in seven Parliaments before which in the two last Kings Reigns had been dissolved abruptly and in wrath and having resisted the fear of Imprisonment and great Fines for their love to England as well as the temptation of Money and Offices to betray it both inferred by the wicked Councellours of that Age tending both to the ruine of our just Rights and the detriment of their Masters Affairs I say having constantly and with great magnanimity and honour made proof of their Integrity they had acquired so great a Reputation that not only the Parliament but even almost the whole People stuck to them and were swayed by them in Actions of a much higher Nature than any are now discoursed of without fear of being deserted or as we say left in the lurch as the people of France often are by their Grandees when they raise little Civil Wars to get great Places which as soon as they are offered they lay down Arms and leave their Followers to be hang'd but although these two reasons of the silence of some wise men and the want of reputation in others does give us but a sad prospect of our Land of Promise yet we have one Consideration which does incourage us to hope better things ere long And that is the Infallible Certainty that we cannot long Continue as we are and that we can never Meliorate but by some such Principles as we have been here all this while discoursing of and that without such helps and succours as may be drawn from thence we must go from one distraction to another till we come into a Civil War and in the close of it be certainly a prey to the King of France who on which side it matters not will be a Gamester and sweep Stakes at last the World not being now equally ballanced between two Princes alike powerful as it was during our last Civil War and if as well this danger as the only means to prevent it be understood in time as no doubt it will we shall be the happiest and the greatest Nation in the World in a little time and in the mean time enjoy the best and most just easie Government of any People upon Earth If you ask me whether I could have offer'd any thing that I thought better than this I will answer you as Solon did a Philosopher who askt him whether he could not have made a better Government for Athens Yes but that his was the best that the People would or could receive And now I believe you will bear me witness that I have not treated you as a Wise man would have done in silence but it is time to put an end to this tittle-tattle which has nauseated you for three days together Noble Ven. I hope you think better of our Judgments than so but I believe you may very well be weary Doct. I am sure the Parish Priests are often thanked for their pains when they have neither taken half so much as you have nor profited their Auditory the hundredth part so much Eng. Gent. The answer to Thank you for your pains is always Thank you Sir for your patience and so I do very humbly both of you Noble Ven. Pray Sir when do you leave the Town Eng. Gent. Not till you leave the Kingdom I intend to see you if please God aboard the Yacht at Gravesend Noble Ven. I should be ashamed to put you to that trouble Eng. Gent. I should be much more troubled if I should not do it in the mean time I take my leave of you for this time and hope to wait on you again to morrow What Doctor you stay to Consult about the Convalescence Adieu to you both Doct. Farewell Sir Nullum numen abest si sit prudentia FINIS
mas os eligimos nuestro Rey conque nos guardeys nuestros Fueros y Privilegios y si no no. That is We who are as good as you and more Powerful do chuse you our King upon condition that you preserve our Rights and Priviledges and if not not Notwithstanding all this Philip the Second being both King of Castile and Arragon picked a quarrel with the latter by demanding his Secretary Antonio Perez who fled from the King's displeasure thither being his own Country and they refusing to deliver him it being expresly contrary to a Law of Arragon that a Subject of that Kingdom should be against his will carried to be tryed elsewhere the King took that occasion to Invade them with the Forces of his Kingdom of Castile who had ever been Rivals and Enemies to the Aragoneses and they to defend themselves under their Justicia who did his part faithfully and couragiously but the Castilians being old Soldiers and those of Arragon but County-Troops the former prevailed and so this Kingdom in getting that of Castile by a Marriage but an Age before lost its own Liberty and Government for it is since made a Province and Governed by a Vice-Roy from Madrid although they keep up the formality of their Cortes still Doct. No man living that knew the hatred and hostility that ever was between the English and Scots could have imagined in the years 1639 and 1640 when our King was with great Armies of English upon the Frontiers of Scotland ready to Invade that Kingdom that this Nation would not have assisted to have brought them under but it proved otherwise Eng. Gent. It may be they feared That when Scotland was reduced to slavery and the Province pacified and Forces kept up there That such Forces and greater might have been imployed here to reduce us into the same condition an apprehension which at this time sticks with many of the common People and helps to fill up the measure of our Fears and Distractions But the visible reason why the English were not at that time very forward to oppress their Neighbours was the consideration That they were to be Invaded for refusing to receive from hence certain Innovations in matters of Religion and the worship of God which had not long before been introduced here and therefore the People of this Kingdom were unwilling to perpetuate a Mungrel Church here by imposing it upon them But I do exceedingly admire when I read our History to see how zealous and eager our Nobility and People here were anciently to assert the right of our Crown to the Kingdom of France whereas it is visible that if we had kept France for we Conquered it intirely and fully to this day we must have run the fate of Arragon and been in time ruined and opprest by our own Valour and good Fortune a thing that was foreseen by the Macedonians when their King Alexander had subdued all Persia and the East who weighing how probable it was that their Prince having the possession of such great and flourishing Kingdoms should change his Domicilium Imperii and inhabit in the Centre of his Dominions and from thence Govern Macedon by which means the Grecians who by their Vertue and Valour had Conquered and subdued the Barbarians should in time even as an effect of their Victories be opprest and tyrannized over by them and this precautious foresight in the Greeks as was fully believed in that Age hastened the fatal Catastrophe of that great Prince Doct. Well I hope this consideration will fore arm our Parliaments That they will not easily suffer their eyes to be dazled any more with the false glory of Conquering France Noble Ven. You need no great cautions against Conquering France at this present and I believe your Parliaments need as little admonition against giving of Money towards new Wars or Alliances that fine wheedle having lately lost them enough already therefore pray let us suffer our Friend to go on Eng. Gent. I have no more to say of Foreign Monarchies but only to tell you That Poland is both Governed and Possessed by some very great Persons or Potentates called Palatines and under them by a very numerous Gentry for the King is not onely Elective but so limited that he has little or no Power but to Command their Armies in time of War which makes them often chuse Foreigners of great Fame for Military Exploits and as for the Commonalty or Country-men they are absolutely Slaves or Villains This Government is extreamly confused by reason of the numerousness of the Gentry who do not always meet by way of representation as in other Kingdoms but sometimes for the choice of their King and upon other great occasions collectively in the Field as the Tribes did at Rome which would make things much more turbulent if all this body of Gentry did not wholly depend for their Estates upon the favour of the Palatines their Lords which makes them much more tractable I have done with our Neighbours beyond Sea and should not without your command have made so long a digression in this place which should indeed have been treated of before we come to speak of England but that you were pleased to divert me from it before However being placed near the Portraicture of our own Country it serves better as contraria juxta se posita to illustrate it but I will not make this Deviation longer by Apologizing for it and shall therefore desire you to take notice That as in England by degrees Property came to shift from the few to the many so the Government is grown heavier and more uneasie both to Prince and People the complaints more in Parliament the Laws more numerous and much more tedious and prolix to meet with the tricks and malice of men which works in a loose Government for there was no need to make Acts verbose when the great Persons could presently force the Execution of them for the Law of Edward the First for frequent Parliaments had no more words than A Parliament shall be holden every year whereas our Act for a Triennial Parliament in the time of King Charles the First contained several sheets of paper to provide against a failer in the Execution of that Law which if the Power had remained in the Lords would have been needless for some of them in case of intermission of Assembling the Parliament would have made their Complaint and Address to the King and have immediately removed the obstruction which in those days had been the natural and easie way but now that many of the Lords like the Bishops which the Popes make at Rome in partibus infidelium are meerly grown Titular and purchased for nothing but to get their Wives place it cannot be wondred at if the King slight their Addresses and the Court-Parasites deride their Honourable undertakings for the safety of their Country Now the Commons succeeding as was said in the Property of the Peers and Church whose Lands